Wenders' 3D Zumthor Documentary Premieres at Venice — SkimNews
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- Wim Wenders' 3D documentary "From Inside Out" world premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, examining Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor's work and philosophy.
- The 14-year collaboration pays particular attention to the design and construction of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, a milestone in Zumthor's career and his first major U.S. project.
- Brad Pitt serves as executive producer after being "an ardent defender of Zumthor's building, even in front of the City Council," per Wenders.
- The film features Ava DuVernay, Werner Herzog, Ever Anderson, Sophie Hunger, Tarek Atoui, and Aoi Yamada — real visitors and residents of Zumthor's buildings rather than actors.
- Wenders first made a short film on Zumthor for the 13th Architecture Biennale; the two originally connected when Zumthor entered a Berlin gallery competition (opposite the Neues Museum) that was never built.
- Wenders chose 3D because "no visual language would be more suitable for architecture than 3D," and Zumthor opened his archives and made himself available across 14 years of shooting.
Why it matters: The 14-year production cycle makes this one of the longer documentary gestation periods tied to a single building project, and the LACMA galleries represent Zumthor's first major U.S. commission — making the Venice premiere a significant moment for architecture documentation as a genre. Brad Pitt's executive-producer credit reflects his unusual public advocacy for the LACMA project at the civic level.
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