Gary Hustwit in person!

A fascinating documentary on an unlikely subject, Helvetica excited a phenomenal response from a previously unrecognized mass audience of font fetishists. ("Imagine if, during the last fifty years of rock and roll, nobody had ever made a music documentary," Hustwit commented apropos the film's surprising popularity.) Exploring the history, and ubiquity, of the eponymous typeface with an ensemble cast composed of the alphabet and several of the most prominent contemporary graphic designers, Helvetica channels a dizzying stream of information, rumination and images into a lively, intelligent and fascinating flow. Capturing the font's innumerable uses in the public spaces of the world's major cities, and the ferociously (and hilariously) geeky debate over its prevalence by leading graphic designers, Helvetica is a revelatory study about the way type affects our daily lives.