Film Unearths Design Work of Local ‘Mid-Century Maverick’ Jack Rogers Hopkins

Jack Rogers Hopkins, a post-war designer with ties to San Diego County, is the focus of a new documentary soon to premiere in Palm Springs.

Known for fluid, yet sculptural furniture designs, Hopkin’s work was part of a budding San Diego community of artists, architects, designers and other creatives who helped shape California post-World War II contemporary craft and design.

A limited number of works by Hopkins, who died in 2006, remain due to a 2018 wildfire in Alpine that destroyed his family home. Enough is intact, however, that an exhibition is planned next year in Rancho Cucamonga.

The film, Jack Rogers Hopkins: Mid-Century Design Maverick, sheds new light on the often overlooked Southern California influence on contemporary design.

The 3 p.m. Tuesday screening, to be held at the desert Annenberg Theater as a featured event during Palm Springs Modernism Week, will be followed by a Q&A with the authors of a 2020 book on Hopkins.

The film is written, directed and produced by Katie Nartonis in association with the Sam Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts. Nartonis is a curator, writer, filmmaker and 20th century design specialist whose passion is telling the story of artists and makers on the West Coast.

The session that precedes the film will focus on “San Diego Modernism,” with Dave Hampton, curator of a 2011 exhibition at the Mingei International Museum on “San Diego’s Craft Revolution.”

Modernism Week, which started Thursday, features more than 350 events including the Palm Springs Modernism Show and the popular Signature Home Tour. It concludes Feb. 26.