Prior to its destruction in June 2011, the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School served the historic New Orleans African-American neighborhood of Tremé since it opened in 1955. Celebrated worldwide for its innovative, regionally-expressive modern design – the structure had sustained moderate damage during the storms and levee breach of 2005. DOCOMOMO Louisiana advocated for its restoration via adaptive reuse. A Plea For Modernism is narrated by actor Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”, “Treme”). (Evan Mather, U.S.A., 2011, 11:59)

DIR Evan Mather NARRATOR Wendell Pierce TEXT Francine Stock, Evan Mather VOICES John Klingman, Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc, John Stubbs, Wayne Troyer PROD Hand Crafted Films in collaboration with DOCOMOMO Louisiana and the School of Architecture, Tulane University ANIMATION Evan Mather MUSIC Juuso Auvinen IMAGE Frank Lotz Miller, Emily Ardoin, Meg Holford, John DeFraites, Karen Gadbois, Karran Harper Royal, John Stubbs, Anthony DelRosario, Sergio Padilla, Francine Stock GRAPHICS John DeFraites, Evan Mather

SCREENINGS Modesto International Architecture Festival ’11, 2011 AFFR (Architectuur Film Festival Rotterdam), 4th Budapest Architecture Film Days, onSCREEN (Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles).