Cinema Scope

There’s something splendidly synergistic about the fact that The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller is coming to Vancouver. This “live documentary” by New York/San Francisco multimedia filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground, The Rainbow Man/John 3:16) combines video clips with in-person narration by Green and a live original score by indie-rock band Yo La Tengo.

But it’s the subject matter that makes it so apropos: Fuller was a global thinker, a man who pulled himself out from suicidal despair with the decision to use his intellect to improve humanity. He was, by turns, a philosopher, a scientist, and an artist. Much of his time was spent looking for ways to make better, more affordable housing. “When I am working on a problem,” he said, “I never think about beauty. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” He also invented the geodesic dome. (See Science World.) As a city that prides itself on its aesthetics, its livability, and its dynamism, we must embrace Fuller’s combination of the spiritual and the material.

This Love Song is the perfect launch for the 2015 PuSh Festival (Jan. 20 to Feb. 8), reminding everyone why that arts organization is one of the city’s most vital. Not coincidentally, passes and tickets go on sale at Pushfestival.ca this month. Northerntickets.com

The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, The Vogue, Nov. 12.