This is a beautifully-made and ultimately very moving film about how a man goes in search of the legacy of his famous father 25 years after the old man's death. Director Nathaniel Kahn is the illegitimate son of highly-regarded architect Louis Kahn, who died in a Penn Station Men's Room in 1974 under unusual circumstances. The elder Kahn, considered by many critics and architects to be the greatest architect of the latter half of the 20th century, was a man obsessed with his work but who also had no great skills when it came to his personal life. However, he was able to secretly juggle having three families during the latter part of his life. He had one child with three different women, while staying married, and somehow the three families' lives never crossed until his funeral.

This story, fleshed out with family photos, archival footage, and interviews with co-workers and family members, is intercut with Nathaniel's pilgrimmage to all his father's buildings. What eventually coalesces is that Louis Kahn shortchanged the people in his life, but his work meant so much to so many people, even down to this day. The latter scenes in Israel, India and Bangladesh are particularly affecting when significant numbers of simple and eloquent people discuss how great a man he was. In Bangladesh, where he designed their awesome Capital Buildings, they declare him to actually be the spiritual father of their democratic state. Nathaniel is left to decide what that really means for his still-living mother and himself.

Besides being very interesting and informative, the film is shot with an artist's eye and contains a beautiful soundtrack. I've seen dozens of good documentaries in recent years, but this one and Riding Giants rank as my favorites.

I agree that this is a great doc. In what would've been an otherwise boring film about Louis Kahn, the fact that his son made it about trying to connect with his dead father through his legacy of buildings, made it great.

I loved how you sort of go through the journey with Nathanial. You start out thinking Louis Kahn was kind of an ass, but by the time you get to India and Bangladesh, you realize how great he was, and you've connected with him in a way.