Cutting Room: We talk with Patrick Creadon, director of "If You Build It", about the documentary and the power of design education in post-recession U.S.

Director Patrick Creadon. From IF YOU BUILD IT, a Long Shot Factory Release 2013. Courtesy of O’Malley Creadon Productions.

If You Build It

documents a year in the classroom of

Project H

, an experimental design-build workshop for high school students in Windsor, North Carolina. Guided by designer Emily Pilloton and architect Matt Miller, the creators of Project H, ten high schoolers set out to design and build a farmers’ market hall for their town, in the hopes that it will help invigorate the local economy and inspire other community-minded projects.

Director Patrick Creadon (of

Wordplay

and

I.O.U.S.A.

)

tracks the workshop’s bumpy progress through naysaying school boards and financial straits to its eventual triumph as a point of local and student pride. Creadon spoke with Paul Petrunia and I about the documentary’s far-reaching themes of education and design-thinking in a post-recession United States.

Emily Pilloton with Studio H students CJ Robertson and Stevie Mizelle. From IF YOU BUILD IT, a Long Shot Factory Release 2013.

Studio H student Erick Bowen and instructor Matthew Miller work on constructing the Windsor Farmers Market pavilion. From IF YOU BUILD IT, a Long Shot Factory Release 2013.

Vendors sell produce at the grand opening of the Windsor Farmers Market. From IF YOU BUILD IT, a Long Shot Factory Release 2013. Courtesy of Brad Feinknopf.

The completed Windsor Farmers Market at dusk. From IF YOU BUILD IT, a Long Shot Factory Release 2013. Courtesy of Brad Feinknopf.