Sam Wainwright Douglas’ documentary Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio screens tonight, 7:45pm at the Alamo Ritz 1. It starts out traditionally enough, as a profile of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant-winning architect Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee, who founded the Rural Studio in 1993 in poor Hale County, Alabama. Mockbee decided to send architecture students (at least the ones who were willing to pack up and move temporarily to Hale County from Auburn University) so they could get real-world experience building innovative homes and churches and other buildings for people who normally couldn’t afford them while confronting their own preconceptions about race, class, and poverty.

Mockbee’s larger-than-life persona and his tireless energy would be ample material for a documentary profile, but Douglas expands his focus to transform the film into an investigation about the nature of architecture, and why some people feel compelled to create buildings that serve a humanitarian purpose and others simply don’t. Douglas told us recently how he found out about the Rural Studio and why he wanted to make a documentary about it.

SXSW: How did you learn about the Rural Studio?

Douglas: Well, Sambo was a family friend. My dad is an architect as well and they did a bunch of work in the 80s together and I liked him. He was always very fun and creative. He started the Rural Studio when I was in college and at one point I had the chance to stop by and see what he was doing. And I thought it was great and wanted to make a documentary about it. It took several years to get it done.

SXSW: How would you explain the Rural Studio to someone who has no idea what it is?

Douglas: The Rural Studio is an architectural education program in west Alabama. It’s a design/build program in which architecture students use reclaimed material to build striking architecture for people who normally couldn’t afford it. They’re doing something socially responsible but they’re crossing over into a world they probably don’t have much experience with.

Many of their preconceptions about race, poverty, and class are turned around and they have a broader world view and they leave with a feeling that they can make some change in the world. Sambo wanted to give them an education where they learned how to do more than just make money.

SXSW: Why did you want to make a documentary about it?

Douglas: It was written about in The New York Times and various magazines and Sambo was garnering a lot of awards but there hadn’t been a film made that got in the trenches and up close and personal about the Rural Studio and got underneath the surface. A film can explore much more than an article, so it felt like the real energy and life and experience of what students go through down there hadn’t been realized.

SXSW: This movie isn’t just a profile of Mockbee and the Rural Studio – you interview Peter Eisenman, an architect who builds grand structures and doesn’t really agree with Mockbee’s philosophy, even though it’s clear that Mockbee did a lot of good. Why did you want to get into the philosophy of architecture?

Douglas: I really wanted the film to have a broader discussion about not just architecture but about how professionals can be good citizens; I wanted to have discussions about citizenship and how people should be using their gifts and talents. And I wanted to show that there’s a broader spectrum in architecture.

Most people think architecture’s pretty elite, about museums and fancy houses, so the Rural Studio is definitely different from the mainstream, but I wanted to have something from the other side of the spectrum in there, to give people a different point of view, so they’re not only hearing about the Rural Studio. I like Peter Eisenman’s architecture – there’s definitely a place for projects like his and there’s a place for this new wave of design for humanitarian good.

SXSW: There’s footage all the way from 1999. How long have you been making this movie and did you shoot it all?

Douglas: It’s 97% all my footage. I shot the interviews with Sambo in 1999 and my friend Jack Sanders (he goes by Jay in the film) was an intern for Sambo and he shot some stuff during his time there as well, which is in the film. Sambo knew I wanted to make a movie and said that Jay and I needed to get together and do it.

Unfortunately, the first time we met was at Sambo’s funeral in 2001 and we shook hands and said, “We’ve got to make this movie.” And over the course of 2002-2003, I was living in New York and whenever I could scrounge up enough dough for a plane ticket, I’d go down there and shoot what I could. We sat on that footage for a while – I made other films – and it took us a while to get the money to do the film justice but in 2007 things started to happen. The past two or three years have been the real concentrated time working on the film.

SXSW: What are your hopes for the movie?

Douglas: I wanted to tell a story that would inspire people and would show what one person did with his talent to make the world a better place and inspire people to do what they can. Mockbee, simply put, was trying to make the world a better place with his talents. I think we live in an increasingly cynical world and the nonstop media blitz we live in constantly bombards us with seemingly insurmountable problems … I just really wanted to make a doc about something positive and about people trying to fix some of these problems.

SXSW: What’s next for you?

Douglas: Well, I’m trying to raise money to do a film on land art of the American West. I want to do a film that focuses on the first wave of land artists, Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer – the folks who started the whole thing off.

Interview by Claiborne Smith

Check out the world premiere of Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio tonight, 7:45pm at the Alamo Ritz 1