‘Make No Little Plans’ Screening

Dear Coalition Friends,

Next Wednesday, June 9th, on the National Mall is an open-air screening of the documentary film Make No Little Plans about architect Daniel Burnham.   It is free and open to the public.  See the press release below.

Burnham was a member of the Senate Park “McMillan” Commission that created the 1901-1902 Plan for the National Mall, which shaped Mall development for almost a century.  Before Washington, Burnham worked on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  After Washington, he designed the 1909 Plan for Chicago.  The film offers fascinating insights on Burnham’s life as well as turn-of-the-twentieth-century America out of which the grand visions for Chicago and Washington arose.

* * *

 Make No Little Plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.
—- Daniel Hudson Burnham

A NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS: DANIEL BURNHAM AND THE AMERICAN CITY

FREE SCREENING ON THE NATIONAL MALL

April 23, 2010 CHICAGO–The Archimedia Workshop announces the Washington, DC premiere of the new documentary film Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City that will air nationally in fall 2010.  The outdoor event will take place on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 8:30 PM on the National Mall at 4th Street in the same location as “ Screen on the Green.” The film screening is free and open to the public. It is a rain or shine event.

Ms. Valerie B. Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, will be the keynote speaker prior to the film’s screening.  Other speakers include Marcel Acosta, Executive Director, National Capital Planning Commission; Caroline Cunningham, President, Trust for the National Mall; Willy C. Gaa, Philippine Ambassador; and John R. Ettelson, President & CEO of William Blair & Company.  Mr. Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was a major funder for the project, will introduce the film.

This special event is co-sponsored by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Trust for the National Mall with additional support from William Blair & Company.  The film screening is also being presented in association with the Embassy of the Philippines, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Make No Little Plans explores the life and legacy of visionary architect and city planner, Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912).  A century ago, as Chairman of the McMillan Commission, Daniel Burnham helped develop a plan for Washington, DC that shaped the National Mall that we enjoy today. As America’s “front yard,” the National Mall is the site of some of the most significant civic, cultural and political gatherings in the nation’s history.

Burnham also developed city plans for Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco and Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines. Classically inspired and often monumental in scale, his plans sought to reconcile things often thought opposite: the practical and the ideal, business and art, and capitalism and democracy.  At the center of it all was the idea of a vibrant urban community.

Joan Allen, actress and Academy Award Nominee, narrated Make No Little Plans with music by composer Michael Bacon. The Archimedia Workshop produced the film.  Kartemquin Films and scriptwriter Geoffrey C. Ward were consultants on the project.  WETA Washington, DC is the presenting station for the fall, 2010 PBS national broadcast.

For more information, please visit: www.thearchimediaworkshop.org

For further information contact:

Mary Morrissette 312.212.1492 mary@thearchimediaworkshop.org
Courtney Cohen 202.777.0677 Dewey Square Group ccohen@deweysquare.com

 
 

More Posts in 2010 Archive