Synopsis

When long-estranged father, dreamer and visionary architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, Glen Small bequeaths his daughter the task of writing his biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, she answers instead with an irreverent film about his precarious career and rocky private life - while he is still alive. Her father has always called himself a genius

Genius

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

; Lucia Small is torn. On the one hand she fancies the idea that her dad might be amongst the undiscovered greats, but she also wonders if maybe he isn't suffering from a giant ego. "My Father, The Genius" explores the precarious framework on which a career and family are built. How does a man dedicate his entire life to "saving the world through architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

," yet miss some basics at home? How does one balance creative obsession with familial obligations? And how does a filmmaker daughter balance her father's wishes with her own artistic vision?