(Please Note: A program of films by New Zealand women independent filmmakers is presented on September 17.)
Len Lye (1901-1980) was a kinetic artist who worked in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, writing, and film. He is best known as one of the pioneers of the “direct film” technique, films made without a camera by painting or scratching directly onto the film stock. But his experimental films explore a variety of techniques from animation to live-action, and several are early experiments with the new medium of Technicolor. Above all they are in every sense compositions in motion, and are often set to musical tracks that employ traditional Island or African percussive music, avant-garde compositions, or both. Born and raised in New Zealand, Lye did most of his work outside of his native country--in the thirties, in England for John Grierson's General Post Office film unit, and after 1944 in New York--but he is honored in New Zealand for a lifetime of achievement in the arts, and in particular as the “father” of a continuing tradition of independent filmmaking there.
Len Lye's films included in tonight's program (interspersed with four films by other filmmakers whose descriptions follow) are: Tusalava (1929, 9 mins, Silent, Animation); Color Box (1935, 4 mins, Color, Direct Film); Rainbow Dance (1935, 5 mins, Color); Particles in Space (1979, 4 mins, Direct Film); Tal Farlow (1980, 1-1/2 mins, Direct Film); Kaleidoscope (1935, 4 mins, Color, Direct Film); Color Flight (1938, 4 mins, Color, Direct Film); Free Radicals (1958/revised 1979, 4 mins); Rhythm (1957, 1 min); Color Cry (1952, 3 mins, Color, Direct Film/Shadow Cast).

Contemporary New Zealand independent films include: Foolish Things (by Peter Wells, 1981, 11 mins), depicting in images and voice-over narration a man's emotional reaction to the breakup of a homosexual relationship; A Grasp of Wind (by Robert Franken, 1982, 25 mins, Color), the first film by the New Zealand-based Dutch painter is a fable of the interrelationship of creatures to their environment, set to music by avant-garde composer Jack Body; The Little Queen (by Peter Wells, 1984, 20 mins, Color), in an immaculately recreated fifties setting, Wells explores the “Queen” as symbol of royalty, chauvinism, and homosexuality; and Bodyspeak (by Gregor Nicholas, 1983, 9 mins, Color), in which the rituals in elaborate dances from many cultures illuminate notions of sexual and cultural differences and prejudices.