Nathaniel Kahn: My father, my architect

56,249 views ・ 2009-04-06

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
One thing I wanted to say about film making is -- about this film --
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00:15
in thinking about some of the wonderful talks we've heard here,
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Michael Moschen, and some of the talks about music,
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this idea that there is a narrative line,
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and that music exists in time.
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00:27
A film also exists in time; it's an experience
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that you should go through emotionally.
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00:33
And in making this film I felt that so many of the documentaries I've seen
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were all about learning something,
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or knowledge, or driven by talking heads, and driven by ideas.
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And I wanted this film to be driven by emotions,
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and really to follow my journey.
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So instead of doing the talking head thing, instead it's composed of scenes,
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and we meet people along the way.
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We only meet them once.
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They don't come back several times, so it really chronicles a journey.
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00:57
It's something like life, that once you get in it
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01:00
you can't get out.
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01:02
There are two clips I want to show you,
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01:04
the first one is a kind of hodgepodge,
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01:07
its just three little moments, four little moments
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with three of the people who are here tonight.
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01:12
It's not the way they occur in the film,
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01:14
because they are part of much larger scenes.
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They play off each other in a wonderful way.
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01:19
And that ends with a little clip of my father, of Lou,
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01:21
talking about something that is very dear to him,
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which is the accidents of life.
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I think he felt that the greatest things in life were accidental,
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01:28
and perhaps not planned at all.
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01:31
And those three clips will be followed by a scene of
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01:35
perhaps what, to me, is really his greatest building
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01:37
which is a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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01:39
He built the capital over there.
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01:42
And I think you'll enjoy this building, it's never been seen --
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it's been still photographed, but never photographed by a film crew.
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We were the first film crew in there.
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So you'll see images of this remarkable building.
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01:55
A couple of things to keep in mind when you see it,
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it was built entirely by hand,
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I think they got a crane the last year.
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02:03
It was built entirely by hand off bamboo scaffolding,
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02:06
people carrying these baskets of concrete on their heads,
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dumping them in the forms.
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It is the capital of the country,
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02:12
and it took 23 years to build,
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which is something they seem to be very proud of over there.
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02:18
It took as long as the Taj Mahal.
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02:20
Unfortunately it took so long that Lou never saw it finished.
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02:23
He died in 1974.
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02:26
The building was finished in 1983.
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So it continued on for many years
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after he died.
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02:34
Think about that when you see that building,
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that sometimes the things we strive for so hard in life we never get to see finished.
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And that really struck me about my father,
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in the sense that he had such belief
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that somehow, doing these things
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giving in the way that he gave, that something good would come out of it,
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even in the middle of a war, there was a war with Pakistan at one point,
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and the construction stopped totally and he kept working,
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because he felt, "Well when the war is done
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they'll need this building."
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03:01
So, those are the two clips I'm going to show.
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03:03
Roll that tape.
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03:06
(Applause)
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03:14
Richard Saul Wurman: I remember hearing him talk at Penn.
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And I came home and I said to my father and mother,
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"I just met this man: doesn't have much work,
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and he's sort of ugly, funny voice,
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and he's a teacher at school.
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I know you've never heard of him, but just mark this day
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that someday you will hear of him,
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because he's really an amazing man."
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03:38
Frank Gehry: I heard he had some kind of a fling with Ingrid Bergman. Is that true?
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03:44
Nathaniel Kahn: If he did he was a very lucky man.
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03:46
(Laughter)
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03:48
NK: Did you hear that, really?
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FG: Yeah, when he was in Rome.
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03:52
Moshe Safdie: He was a real nomad.
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03:55
And you know, when I knew him when I was in the office,
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he would come in from a trip, and he would be in the office
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for two or three days intensely, and he would pack up and go.
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04:02
You know he'd be in the office till three in the morning working with us
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and there was this kind of sense of the nomad in him.
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04:08
I mean as tragic as his death was in a railway station,
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it was so consistent with his life, you know?
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I mean I often think I'm going to die in a plane,
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or I'm going to die in an airport,
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or die jogging without an identification on me.
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04:23
I don't know why I sort of carry that
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04:25
from that memory of the way he died.
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04:28
But he was a sort of a nomad at heart.
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04:33
Louis Kahn: How accidental our existences are really
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04:36
and how full of influence by circumstance.
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05:56
Man: We are the morning workers who come, all the time, here
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06:01
and enjoy the walking, city's beauty and the atmosphere
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and this is the nicest place of Bangladesh.
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06:09
We are proud of it.
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06:11
NK: You're proud of it?
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06:13
Man: Yes, it is the national image of Bangladesh.
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06:16
NK: Do you know anything about the architect?
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06:19
Man: Architect? I've heard about him; he's a top-ranking architect.
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06:26
NK: Well actually I'm here because I'm the architect's son,
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06:29
he was my father.
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06:31
Man: Oh! Dad is Louis Farrakhan?
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06:33
NK: Yeah. No not Louis Farrakhan, Louis Kahn.
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06:36
Man: Louis Kahn, yes!
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06:39
(Laughter)
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06:41
Man: Your father, is he alive?
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06:43
NK: No, he's been dead for 25 years.
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06:46
Man: Very pleased to welcome you back.
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06:49
NK: Thank you.
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07:30
NK: He never saw it finished, Pop.
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07:32
No, he never saw this.
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07:57
Shamsul Wares: It was almost impossible, building for a country like ours.
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08:01
In 30, 50 years back, it was nothing, only paddy fields,
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and since we invited him here,
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he felt that he has got a responsibility.
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08:10
He wanted to be a Moses here, he gave us democracy.
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08:13
He is not a political man,
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but in this guise he has given us
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the institution for democracy, from where we can rise.
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08:20
In that way it is so relevant.
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08:24
He didn't care for how much money this country has,
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or whether he would be able to ever finish this building,
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but somehow he has been able to do it, build it, here.
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And this is the largest project he has got in here, the poorest country in the world.
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08:37
NK: It cost him his life.
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08:39
SW: Yeah, he paid. He paid his life for this,
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08:42
and that is why he is great and we'll remember him.
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08:46
But he was also human.
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Now his failure to satisfy the family life,
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is an inevitable association of great people.
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But I think his son will understand this,
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and will have no sense of grudge,
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or sense of being neglected, I think.
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He cared in a very different manner,
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09:07
but it takes a lot of time to understand that.
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In social aspect of his life
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he was just like a child, he was not at all matured.
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He could not say no to anything,
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and that is why, that he cannot say no to things,
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we got this building today.
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09:23
You see, only that way you can be able to understand him.
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There is no other shortcut,
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no other way to really understand him.
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But I think he has given us this building
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and we feel all the time for him,
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that's why, he has given love for us.
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He could not probably give the right kind of love for you,
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but for us, he has given the people the right kind of love,
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that is important.
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You have to understand that.
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He had an enormous amount of love,
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he loved everybody.
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To love everybody, he sometimes did not see
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the very closest ones,
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and that is inevitable for men of his stature.
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10:15
(Applause)
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