This film takes you on an extraordinary journey into the world of the Surrealists as the life and accomplishments of the surrealist collector, poet, and architect Edward James unfolds. For the last 20 years of his life, aided by 40 full time laborers and craftsmen, he built one of the biggest and yet least known architectural monuments of the 20th century,dedicated to Surrealism and hidden in the jungles of Mexico. He created over 36 extraordinary concrete structures, some over 100 feet high, at a personal cost exceeding 5 million dollars.

"I Build the Tower" is the true story of the life and work of Sam Rodia, the Italian immigrant who built the world-famous Watts Towers on a residential lot in South Central Los Angeles. These mosaic-covered spires of reinforced cement rising to almost one hundred feet were once scheduled for demolition by the City Building Department. The towers survived to become a symbol of the community in which they stand and they are now recognized throughout the world as a unique embodiment of the structural principles found in nature.

Witness a true craftsman at work. With no money, but the need for expression, Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant, built the amazing Watts Towers in an outside district of LA.

Avant-garde short by Lawrence Jordan.