Review: Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of Rural Studio by Sam Wainwright Douglas

It may seem odd that Citizen Architect follows the design and construction of a Hale County, Alabama, home during 2002 to explore the life and work of Samuel Mockbee, who passed away in 2001 (Figure 1). But this chronology underscores the untimeliness of Mockbee’s death and his continued influence on Rural Studio, a program he cofounded at Alabama’s Auburn University in 1993, which brings architecture students to design and build in a part of the state where one in four people live in poverty. Although Citizen Architect is not the first documentary about Rural Studio, the filmmakers, who include Mockbee’s son-in-law, Sam Wainwright Douglas (director/producer), his daughter Sara Ann Mockbee (producer), and...