Q&A with Sam Taffel & Gillian Waldo
September 12, 2026
Roxy Cinema
2 Avenue of the Americas, Cellar Level
New York, NY 10013
Q&A with Sam Taffel and Gillian Waldo (2026 Creative Capital Awardee) following the 9/12 screening of their short film, Learning from Learning from Las Vegas (2025). The program features a special 35MM presentation of Viva Las Vegas (1965).
Learning from Learning from Las Vegas (Sam Taffel & Gillian Waldo, 2025, 18MIN, 16mm to Digital) is an experimental adaptation of the seminal architectural text Learning from Las Vegas (1972) by architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi. The film details the evolution of their relationship, explores the motels, neon signage, and wedding chapels described in the book, and asks what lessons can we glean from the contemporary landscape of Vegas.
Gillian Waldo
Nickel
Gillian Waldo is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and makes short nonfiction works on 16mm film about the built world. Her work has screened at Prismatic Ground, Indie Lisboa, Open City Documentary Festival, UnionDocs, Rooftop Films, and ICDOCS among other festivals and institutions. She works in libraries.