Modern Tide: Mid-century Architecture on Long Island

The place, the image, and the myth of Long Island can evoke everything from the flickering green light in the Great Gatsby to Ina Garten’s epic gravlax plates (to be enjoyed with a Hamptons breeze), or perhaps the burgeoning suburban pop punk scene or a sweet and tangy grandma pizza slice. For a few, however, Long Island brings to mind an impressive list of architects, from Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson to John Hejduk and Marcel Breuer. Long Island’s East End was, in fact, once a testing ground for modernist architecture, a place for experimental design, and home to a medley of prototypes that dared to imagine how modern architecture could and should be. In the upcoming film “Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island,” director Jake Gorst pieces together Long Island’s rich architectural history, much of which has been “subtracted from the cultural legacy,” according to the film’s trailer. Gorst attempts to restore the lessons of Long Island’s architecture and learn from the ghosts of modernism driven out by new development.