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One category we’ve been trying to keep a closer eye on this year is the documentaries. Mostly because SXSW is quickly becoming known as one of the best major festivals around for seeing real life stories on the big screen. One doc that has caught my eye in this year’s line-up is Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio, a film by Sam Wainwright Douglass. It tells the story of architecture that is outside the boundaries of what you might expect from the field, architecture that focuses on low-income housing and ways to keep a roof over the heads of even less fortunate among us. It looks like a fascinating story, which is usually a good starting point for any documentary.

Citizen Architect makes its SXSW 2010 premiere on Wednesday, March 17 at 7:45p at the Alamo Ritz. The full synopsis and trailer are below.

Synopsis:

The late architect Samuel Mockbee started the Rural Studio, a design/build architecture program, in which students create charity architecture for impoverished communities in rural Alabama. Guided by passionate interviews with Mockbee, the film shows how a group of students use their creativity and compassion to craft a home for their charismatic, destitute client, Jimmie Lee Matthews.

But, the Rural Studio is about more than building. It is also about providing students with an experience that forever inspires them to use their skills to better their communities. Interviews with Mockbee’s peers and scenes with those he’s influenced infuse the film with a larger discussion of architecture’s role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, citizenship and social change.

Trailer: