"If there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion. After all, there are melodic figures, why can't there be figures of motion?"-Len LyeTonight's program consists of a selection of Len Lye's stunning direct animation films and his seldom-seen war films. We open with his first film, Tusalava, a pioneer experimental film dealing with "the beginnings of organic life," according to the artist. Its imagery is a unique mix of Maori, Aboriginal, and modernist influences. The Samoan title means "just the same." Also included is the vibrant restoration of Colour Box made from Lye's hand-painted original by the National Archive of Film and Television. This is the film that earned Lye a place in the history books as the pioneer of direct filmmaking and one of the pioneers of color film. For years it was available only in washed-out prints. As Jonathan Dennis wrote, "Its colors now spill off the screen as fresh as the day they were painted."Stan Brakhage called Free Radicals "an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece." In this powerful abstract direct film with a soundrack of African drum music, Lye scratched "white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches" onto black leader, using a variety of tools from saw-teeth to arrowheads. Tonight we show both the rarely screened, original 1958 version and the revised version which Lye completed in the last year of his life.Tusalava (1929, 9 mins, Silent @ 16fps, B&W, 35mm). Colour Box: Produced by John Grierson. (1935, 4 mins, Color, 35mm).Experimental Animation (a.k.a. Peanut Vendor, 1934, 3 mins, incomplete, B&W, 35mm). The Birth of the Robot: Color director and producer, Humphrey Jennings. (1936, 7 mins, Color, 35mm). When the Pie Was Opened (1941, 8 mins, B&W, 35mm). Newspaper Train (1942, 5 mins, B&W, 35mm). Kill or Be Killed (1942, 18 mins, B&W, 35mm). Collapsible Metal Tubes (Tin Salvage, 1942, 2 mins, B&W, 35mm). Free Radicals (original version, 1958, 5 mins, B&W, 35mm, permission Cinematheque Royale, Belgium). Colour Flight (1938, 4 mins, Color, 16mm). Rhythm (1957, 1 min, B&W, 16mm). Free Radicals (revised version, 1979, 4 mins, B&W, 16mm). Color Cry (1952, 3 mins, Color, 16mm). Tal Farlow: Finished by Lye's assistant Steve Jones, supervised by Ann Lye. (1980, 1 min, B&W, 16mm). Particles in Space (1979, 4 mins, B&W, 16mm).