Kid City

This 1972 documentary short by Academy-nominated filmmaker Jon Boorstin focuses on architect Frank Gehry and his sister, Doreen Gehry Nelson, as they attempt a whole new method of teaching elementary school children in Los Angeles. With funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, Frank and Doreen work together on a pilot program of “design-based learning” that would restructure the typical classroom curriculum, replacing rote math or civics lessons with an imaginary city designed and built entirely by the students themselves. Boorstin’s film captures the start of this new, experimental program as well as its eventual demise, after tensions with the school’s regular fifth-grade teacher reach a boiling point. Kid City was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2018.