His most notable documentaries include: Stations of the Elevated, We Were So Beloved, Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan, and Art Is...
[2] In 1936, his family fled to the United States from Nazi Germany, settling in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York.
[3] For the next 24 years, Kirchheimer worked as an editor, director, and camera operator in the New York film industry.
[3] In the 1970s, Kirchheimer became a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he taught film production; he was part of the faculty for the next four decades.
[3][4][2] However, after making the documentary We Were So Beloved (1985), he stepped away from filmmaking until 2006, when he embraced digital film editing and returned with Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan.
[2] This began a new flurry of activity, which continued as late as 2022, as he made new projects and worked with old footage he had shot decades before.
[2] He died from cancer at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on July 16, 2024, at the age of 93.
I am eager for the audience to work, and not lose themselves while they are watching my films [... they should be] able to hold on to their own integrity and insights so they don't leave their intelligence behind.