Film Screening and Director Discussion: Frank Gehry - Building Justice

The inspiring documentary Frank Gehry: Building Justice connects architecture with social policy and follows the legendary architect Frank Gehry as he sets out to answer whether there is a better way to design prisons. Collaborating with architecture students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the Yale School of Architecture, former inmates, and prison experts, Gehry and his colleagues grapple with complex social, political, emotional, structural, and aesthetic challenges to re-envision the future of incarceration. Together, they explore all aspects of prison design, learning first-hand the design flaws of prison life from women who have been incarcerated in the worst prisons in all of the United States. Frank Gehry: Building Justice examines both the American criminal justice system and the issue of prison design through architecture students' point of view, as they look into the future of American incarceration policy.

Speakers:
Ultan Guilfoyle, Filmmaker, Frank Gehry: Building Justice

About the Speakers:
Ultan Guilfoyle is an esteemed filmmaker, producer, and curator whose career spans the intersections of architecture, design, and cinema. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he majored in English and Philosophy, Guilfoyle's scholarly approach to visual storytelling reflects a deep engagement with intellectual and aesthetic traditions.

Best known for his collaboration with the late Frank Gehry on the critically acclaimed documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005), Guilfoyle has consistently elevated architectural discourse through film. His body of work reveals a profound understanding of how visual media can articulate the complexities of spatial design, human creativity, and the cultural significance of the built environment.

Guilfoyle served as a Senior Producer at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where he played a pivotal role in developing cross-disciplinary exhibitions that bridged art, architecture, and technology. His academic contributions include guest lectures and workshops at institutions such as Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Architectural Association in London, where he has inspired a generation of architects and filmmakers.

A frequent collaborator with world-renowned architects and designers, Guilfoyle continues to advocate for the critical role of storytelling in architecture, emphasizing its power to illuminate the human experience and shape public understanding of design excellence.