Daryl Dellora - Harry Seidler: Modernist director's exclusive interview

DELLORA: As a documentary filmmaker, I am always looking for people and stories that will make compelling visual narratives. In 1996 when I was researching for my award-winning film about the design and construction of the Sydney Opera House, The Edge of the Possible, I met Australian architect Harry Seidler. I immediately knew that I wanted to make a film about Harry. Unfortunately, it took 20 years to come to fruition. Harry was a lifelong supporter of Jørn Utzon and his design for the Sydney Opera House. He spoke in the Sydney Town Hall and led street protests of architects to bring Utzon back to the project after his untimely removal. When I met Utzon in 1998 he told me that Harry Seidler was a great friend who had supported his work at a time when he most needed allies. Harry carried this passion and dedication to the modernist cause throughout his life and he never took a backward step.

DELLORA: My favourite scene in Harry Seidler: Modernist is the opening title sequence which takes us from the young Harry in archival black and white in 1950, working on the deck of his most famous building, Rose Seidler House, to the same building more than sixty years later. The moving film goes from black and white to colour and reveals the beautiful mural Harry painted for the project in all its glory. This scene does something that only film can, it transports us in time from a beautifully observed moment in Harry's life in 1950 to the present day. At one in the same time it shows the longevity and continuing relevance of Harry's architecture.

DELLORA: Harry Seidler was one of the most passionate and infectiously creative people I have ever met. He inspired all those around him, this left a large cast of his friends, family, colleagues and commentators who were irrepressible in their desire to tell their story, and express their relationship to and experience of Harry and his work.

DELLORA: Filming an interview with Lord Richard Rogers, the architect of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, was an enormous delight, hearing first hand about his friendship and relationship to Harry and the influence of his work on the international architectural scene provided a unique perspective for the film. Also being able to conduct that interview in Lord Rogers' extraordinary London flat – itself an iconic architectural and interior design masterpiece – was great highpoint for the project. In 1998 Harry Seidler launched my film The Edge of The Possible: Jørn Utzon and the Sydney Opera House in what is now the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House. Nearly twenty years later it was a delight to launch the film Harry Seidler: Modernist in the same building. The Sydney launch was second only to our international premiere in the Australian Embassy in Paris – another Harry Seidler building, one described by architect Glen Murcutt as an artwork in itself.

DELLORA: Everybody seems to have their own Harry Seidler story. And these stories kept coming with the national screening of the film on ABC-TV. One Austrian man who lived in a Harry Seidler building in Vienna recounted how he wanted to make alterations to his sundeck. The body corporate told him the architect had refused his request. He knew Harry lived in Sydney and couldn't believe that he would care about a minor renovation in Vienna. So he rang Harry's office in Sydney hoping someone could help him. Who should answer the phone but Harry himself. His answer was immediate and harsh, "No way. I told them already. You will ruin my building with your sundeck!" And he slammed down the phone. The man was mortified. However the story had a happy ending when Harry later agreed to design the sundeck himself. The man now proudly shows off his unique Harry Seidler designed sundeck.

DELLORA: I am a consultant director and executive producer on Film Art Media's latest release The Show Must Go On which traverses the important territory of mental health in the entertainment industry. It will screen on ABC-TV later this year.