Urban developers and corporate bigwigs are, by nature, indifferent to historic preservation. Blithely, they invert the George Santayana warning: Those who cannot remember the past will repeat condemning it. In 2007, Kansas City Southern did just that, purchasing the Union Tank Car Dome — designed by Buckminster Fuller — and demolishing the “landmark” structure in Baton Rouge without notifying the press, the public, the local government or the Foundation for Historical Louisiana. It was a bottom-line business decision, made free from aesthetic considerations. This utilitarian geodesic dome was once the largest clear span edifice in the United States yet is now no more than a steel scrap heap.

Evan Mather chronicles the conceptualization, construction and eventual destruction of this property in the filmmaker’s trademark smooth style; relying primarily on still images and audio interviews, he creates a seamless document and subversive treatise. A NECESSARY RUIN both honors Fuller’s dome and speculates that its abandonment may be beneficial. Either way, the 30-minute short allows viewers to revisit the past and in remembering it, consider whether we ought challenge the destructive perseveration of progress.

When I was the Curator of the 1 Reel Film Festival at Bumbershoot — the nation’s best-attended celebration of short cinema — I programmed a number of Evan Mather’s films and commissioned another for my annual challenge. In 2002, The Warren Report presented a retrospective of Evan’s oeuvre at the Seattle Art Museum. Yes, I am a champion of his work. Having just watched A NECESSARY RUIN, I reached out to Evan and coaxed him into answering a few questions to further explore the content and creation of his latest project. Please, read on… but deconstruct at your own risk.

EVAN:  Because it’s so goddamned alien to what we are used to! People like to live in – and architects tend to build – what we are comfortable with – a tudor, colonial, or plantation home. I am by no means an expert on Buckminster Fuller or modern architecture – but there is a point made in my film that stuctures that use newer technologies – stainless steel, aluminum, and plastics – require more maintenance than buildings made out of brick, concrete, etc. It is simply too foriegn of a building type for the general public to feel comfortable with. Even Bucky himself was not convinced – he lived in the Carbondale, Illinois dome featured in my film for about ten years – and then moved out because it was drafty and leaked like crazy.

EVAN:  I don’t know. There is an argument that a demolished landscape has more power – because it exists only in one’s memory. There were a number of questions I was trying to raise with the film: should the dome have been destroyed; should it have been restored; or should it have been left alone – a ruin in the landscape – something for future generations to stumble upon and discover for themselves. All have merit – but I do tend to lean toward the latter.

EVAN:  Possibly. However, the vast majority of the images in the film are from the 1957/58 photographs by Ivan Massar – so in a sense it was appropriate to continue using stills even for the present day material.

EVAN:  We have not met. We have even avoided the temptation of Skyping. Keeps it mysterious. Plus, given the time difference, I don’t think we could agree on a suitable time to chat. But yes, we have collaborated on seven films - Vert, Icarus of Pittsburgh, Bodybags, So What?, A Necessary Ruin, and Telly – an animated piece which we have been working on for almost five years now and I hope to finish in 2010. As far as working together, the process has involved my sending Juuso some rough storyboards and basic thoughts on the music – and giving him the freedom to surprise me. He then emails my some MP3s and I make a comment or request a change – but this is kept to a minimum since his musical style and my film aesthetic are very compatible.

EVAN:  Aside from my daughter, the roughly fifty short films I have made are my legacy – and through them I have explored a breadth of genre and subject matter – stories that have interested me. Digital video as we know it is doomed to be superceded by mediums of higher definition and bandwidth – and wiped out by magnets. However, I’m not afriad of them being “lost” – that’s the beauty of the Internet – you can’t get rid of anything!