This Wednesday, September 9th: Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. One of the the films featured type experts, Mike Parker, and the man who brought Helvetica to the storied Linotype font library, will join us afterward to talk about the film and his work.

On Thursday, September 17th: SPACE presents the New England premiere of Typeface, the new film by Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams, Stevie, At the Death House Door). Typeface focuses on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum where international artists meet retired craftsmen and together navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional technique. One weekend each month, the quiet of Two Rivers, Wisconsin is interrupted as carloads of artisans drive in from across the Midwest. The place comes alive as printmaking workshops led by, and filled with, some of the region’s top creative talent descend on the sleepy enclave. The museum is significant to the town’s history, but more importantly, its existence is critical to the worldwide design community who are passionate about the history of their craft and its function in the contemporary field. The film will be followed by a discussion with local typesetters discussing their craft.

Helvetica trailer:

Typeface trailer:

It’s a twisting wild ride, involving fake names, FBI allegations of million dollar fraud, mob connections, and Norma Khouri’s constant, but serpentine insistence that the story she has told is true. When I saw the film at a festival last year, the theater was completely abuzz with hisses and whispers debating Norma’s credibility. We’ll do a quick, informal poll after the screening to see what the SPACE audience thinks . . . is Norma Khouri a “Con” or an “Artist”?

Director Anna Broinowski has made a film that stylistically mirrors Norma’s twisting story and keeps the audience guessing at the truth. “The marriage between con-artist and filmmaker is a match made in heaven: both use a million tiny deceits to manipulate the way we think and feel; both are in the business of making illusions real.”

When Broinowski read Malcolm Knox’s Sydney Morning Herald article exposing Norma Khouri as a hoax in July 2004, she knew she’d found the subject for her next documentary. “I wanted to know what kind of woman could be so brilliant that while on the run from the FBI she could reinvent herself as a Jordanian virgin with a Fatwah on her head, write a best-seller, and convince the best publishing and media minds in the world that she was telling the truth.”