Director’s Statement Anita Naughton: When I first met Bob and Denise, they were the same on camera as in real life. I found them eccentric, witty, impossible and brilliant. And this is what I wanted to capture. In the hundreds of hours of footage, I looked for the ‘alive’ moments- so described by our consulting editor Jonathan Oppenheim. Their marriage and artistic collaboration spanned over fifty years. Yet they were both independent thinkers with their own creative sources and inspirations. Robert Venturi was a child of Italian immigrants and Denise Scott Brown, nee Lakofsky, a South African jew. Two people so different and yet completely fused in their artistic vision. But how did Denise endure a working partnership in which her husband was ‘the genius’ and often given sole credit for both of their work? It took many years to craft this story and achieve balance. I was portraying two profound thinkers who lived well into their 90’s and designed hundreds of buildings and wrote many books. Theirs was a long arc. Denise saw the filming of Stardust as a gift. A chance for both of them to relive their lives as they travelled over continents revisiting their loves, joys and sorrows.

Director’s Statement Jim Venturi :" I joined my father, Robert Venturi, on his first trip to China in 2002, a journey that he had dreamed about since the age of fourteen (he was then 77). I brought a small video camera to record the trip and this became the genesis of the film, Stardust:. I was 31 at the time, and I wanted to capture my parents while they were still alive. I hired a film crew and filmed hours of verité and interview footage, as well as gathering countless hours of archival materials. I realised that the human story was the one I wanted to tell. I was extremely lucky to have found Anita Naughton who was able to sift through all of the footage and paint this intimate portrait.