“Employing a collage of archival materials and extensive audio interviews with the voluble Rodia, recollections from his nieces and nephews, comments from admirers (most notably Buckminster Fuller, a kindred idiosyncratic soul), and loving close-ups of the towers, ‘I Build the Tower’ is a fascinating portrait of a driven man, as well as an appreciation of the Watts Towers (a centerpiece of community pride and a national landmark). Recommended…”

– F. Swietek, Video Librarian

Barely five feet tall, the uneducated Rodia worked from the 1920’s to the 1950’s without helpers or scaffolding to build unique and majestic spires of reinforced cement rising to a hundred feet, decorated with a mosaic of tile, seashells, pottery, ceramics, rocks and glass – even broken 7-Up and Milk of Magnesia bottles. Transcending the category of “outsider” or “folk” art, Rodia’s Watts Towers have come to be recognized as an artistic and engineering masterpiece world-wide.

In 1959, the Building and Safety Department of Los Angeles issued a job order to “demolish and remove the dangerous towers” and tried to pull them down with a crane. Even within Rodia’s own family, the controversy raged “Was Uncle Sam a great artist or a bum?”

But, with no conscious intent to do so, Sam and his towers triumphed over bureaucracy and achieved lasting recognition in the history of modern art and architecture. Their stature was further enhanced as a symbol of freedom for the community in which they stand when the 1965 Watts Uprising left the towers untouched.

“As time goes on, they begin to reveal to humanity the soul of the artist,” said eminent designer, structuralist and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller in his last interview, filmed exclusively for this project. For Fuller, the Watts Towers embody the universal structural principles found in nature, and demonstrate the power of individual initiative to effect change in the world.

Rodia great-nephew Brad Byer’s access to family members and materials and Edward Landler’s long association with the Watts community provided them with a wealth of archival film footage and interviews to go along with their own footage of Naples and the southern Italian region of Campania, of the San Francisco Bay area where Rodia lived before and after his years in Los Angeles, and, of course, of Los Angeles and the Watts Towers themselves.

The film also relies on audio interviews of Rodia from the early 1960’s to chronicle his redemption from alcoholism and despair to a fierce determination to build “something big.”

Rodia’s own words offer the shrewd and haunting perspective of an “Old World” peasant living in —but never assimilating into —modern industrial America.

Also offered for streaming and as a bonus DVD is the complete 45-minute interview with R. Buckminster Fuller, excerpts of which appear in “I Build the Tower”. In this 1983 interview, filmed three months before his death, Fuller demonstrates Rodia’s aesthetic and architectural understanding and its significance in Fuller’s own vision for the future of humanity.

“I Build the Tower” has been screened at many film festivals including:

• Documentary Fortnight, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
• The Environmental Film Festival, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• The Pan-African Film Festival, Los Angeles
• The Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival
• International Festival for Films on Art, Montreal, Quebec
• Leeds International Film Festival, England
• Festival di Palazzo Venezia, Rome
• Biografilm Festival, Bologna, Italy

In April, 2009, “I Build The Tower” was the opening presentation of “Art and Migration: Sabato Rodia and the Watts Towers”, an international conference at the University of Genoa, Italy, co-sponsored by U.C.L.A.’s International Institute. In October, 2010, it was also highlighted when the second phase of this conference took place in Los Angeles as “The Watts Towers Common Ground Initiative: Art/Migrations/ Development”.

The film’s short but prominent segment depicting the City’s inadequate efforts to maintain and preserve the Towers aroused significant discussion at the 2009 Genoa conference. After the L.A. conference, the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs contracted with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for its Conservation Center to undertake the care and maintenance of the Watts Towers. The Center’s scientists and engineers continue to do so to this day.

 Since 2010, “I Build the Tower” has continued to be showcased at venues including:

• Los Angeles city-wide “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980” exhibition
• The American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, its Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, and its Los Feliz Theatre in East Hollywood
• The California African American Museum in Los Angeles
• The Vancouver International Film Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia
• The FilmoTeca Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain