If You Build It

Released Jan 10, 2014

1 hr. 22 min.

Documentary

List

78%

27 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Designer Emily Pilloton and architect Matt Miller go to a struggling community in North Carolina to teach high-school students about their craft.

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Audience Member

If You Build It - 4 out of 5 - A beautiful quick Documentary about to teachers trying a new kind of design class its quite interesting

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Curtis C

Interesting, but not a good movie. The audience score has to be fabricated. No pun intended.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/08/18

Full Review

Audience Member

Teach a man to fish rather than give a man a fish...great film.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A documentary with tons of heart "If You Build It" is worth a watch. Telling the story of an impoverished small town, and revolutionary architects who come to teach high schoolers, it is impossible to not fall in love with all of the main characters. The end result is astonishing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A really nice doc on a very fascinating idea. It's a great showcase for teamwork and how we could be using education in better and more productive areas rather than sitting students down for over the top math classes that have limited use for most students taking the classes. Here is where you can teach students how to do math for real situations rather than for a test. Overall, it isn't the most compelling documentary but an interesting one at best

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beautiful film supporting small town public education and helping a small town get back in its feet. Of course when a town has people who don't want to help themselves.... Would have been a better experience if friends of the producers weren't playing on their phones the ENTIRE movie!!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

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Tirdad Derakhshani

Philadelphia Inquirer

An inspiring, educational, highly enjoyable documentary from director Patrick Creadon, best known for 2008's I.O.U.S.A., which chronicled America's less-than-healthy fiscal condition.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 7, 2014

Full Review

Loren King

Boston Globe

The film is about innovation inside and outside the classroom and the transformative power of good teaching.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 27, 2014

Full Review

Walter V. Addiego

San Francisco Chronicle

[Creadon] probably errs on the side of advocacy here. But give him credit for acknowledging that idealistic endeavors don't always pay off.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 27, 2014

Full Review

Bernard Boo

Way Too Indie

It's a limited viewpoint of a much larger, high-stakes issue.

Rated: 6/10

Apr 3, 2019

Full Review

Nguyên Lê

The Script Lab

It's joyful upon seeing the kids realize there's a humanitarian angle to all this and discover they can do more than what the run-down surroundings dictate to them.

Oct 10, 2018

Full Review

Marty Mapes

Movie Habit

Unorthodox shop class says if you build it, it will mean something to you

Rated: 3/4

May 15, 2014

Full Review

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Synopsis

Designer Emily Pilloton and architect Matt Miller go to a struggling community in North Carolina to teach high-school students about their craft.

Director: Patrick Creadon
Distributor: Long Shot Factory
Production Co: O'Malley Creadon Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 10, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.9K

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