Len Lye was a kinetic artist who worked in a variety of media - painting, sculpture and writing - but who is best known as one of the pioneers of the “direct film” technique, films made without camera by painting or scratching directly onto the celluloid. Lye made most of his films in England in the '30s as part of John Grierson's G.P.O. (General Post Office) Film Unit. It was in the service of the British mails that Lye made the first cameraless film, Colour Box (1935), drawing and painting directly onto the film strip, and it was this work (also Musical Poster 1) which later inspired Norman McLaren. But Lye branched out into many different techniques, including puppet animation in The Birth of a Robot (1936), a film notable for its abstract storm sequence, made in collaboration with Humphrey Jennings for the Shell Oil Company. In Rainbow Dance (1936) he used solarized and multiple images of the human figure within an abstract framework, and for the million-dollar 6-minute Trade Tattoo (1937), Lye stenciled abstract patterns on discarded documentary footage, which he transposed into color by an intricate frame-by-frame plotting and printing system. During the war, Len Lye's witty, imaginative and colorful animations became propaganda for the war and food ministries as in Musical Poster 1 (1940) and When the Pie Was Opened (1944).
Included in tonight's program are nine films not previously shown at the Pacific Film Archive, including the animated film Tusalava (1929), which Horrocks calls “a neglected landmark in the history of experimental films, with its original mixture of tribal art and modernism,” and Free Radicals (1958/1979), which “can be regarded as one of the finest examples of ‘abstract expressionist' filmmaking. This four-minute work was described recently by Stan Brakhage as ‘an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece (a brief epic).'”
Tusalava. Sponsored by the London Film Society. (1929, 9 mins, 35mm, silent, Print courtesy of National Film Archive, BFI, London)
Colour Box. Produced by John Grierson. Sponsored by the G.P.O Film Unit. Music: “La Belle Creole” performed by Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra. (1935, 4 mins, in Dufaycolor)
Kaleidoscope. Produced by Gerald Noxon. Sponsored by Imperial Tobacco Company/Churchman's Cigarettes. Music: “Beguine d'amour” performed by Don Baretto and His Orchestra, charted and synchronized by Jack Ellitt. (1935, 4 mins)
The Birth of the Robot. Sponsored by Shell-Mox and BP Ltd. Written by C.H. David. Photographed by Alex Strasser. Color Director & Producer: Humphrey Jennings. Art Direction by John Banting and Allen Fanner. Sound by Jack Ellitt. Music: Holst's “The Planets” performed by London Symphony Orchestra. (1936, 7 mins, 35mm, In Gasparcolor, Print courtesy of Museum of Modern Art)
Rainbow Dance. Produced by Basil Wright and Alberto Cavalcanti. Sponsored by the G.P.O. Film Unit for the P.O. Savings Bank. Photographed by Frank Jones. Music: “Tony's Wife” performed by Rico's Creole Band. Sound by Jack Ellitt. Choreography by Rupert Doone. (1936, 5 mins, in Gasparcolor)
Trade Tattoo. Produced by John Grierson. Sponsored by the G.P.O. Film Unit. Music by the Lecuona Band. Musical Editor: Jack Ellitt. (1937, 5 mins, 35mm, in Technicolor, Print from PFA Collection)
N. or N.W. Produced by Alberto Cavalcanti. Sponsored by the G.P.O. Film Unit. Photographed by Frank Jones. Music: “I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” performed by Fats Waller and His Orchestra; “T'ain't No Use” performed by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra; “Give Me a Break, Baby” performed by Bob Howard and His Orchestra. With Evelyn Corbett, Dwight Goodwin. (1937, 7 mins, Print courtesy of Cinémathèque québecoise, Montreal)
Swinging the Lambeth Walk. Financed by a British Council grant. Musical Director: Ernst Meyer. (1939, 4 mins, 35mm, in Dufaycolor, Print courtesy of Museum of Modern Art)
Musical Poster #1. Sponsored by the British Government, Ministry of Information. Sound Editor: Ernst Meyer. Music performed by various British jazz groups. (1940, 3 mins, in Technicolor)
Color Cry. Produced by the Direct Film Company, Ann Zeiss. Music: “Fox Chase” performed by Sonny Terry. (1942, 3 mins, color)
Rhythm. Sponsored by the Chrysler Corporation. Produced by the Direct Film Company, Ann Zeiss. Music from certain African tribes. (1957, 1 min)
The Walls Came Tumbling Down. From CBS documentary produced and written by Merrill Brockway. (1968, 8-minute excerpt)
Free Radicals. Produced by the Direct Film Company with financial assistance from the New Zealand Film Commission. Music by the Bagirmi Tribe in Africa. Assistants: Steven Jones and Paul Barnes. (1979 version, revised from the 1978 original, 4 mins)
Particles in Space. Soundtrack comprises sound effects by Lye's kinetic steel sculpture “Storm King”; “Jumping Dance Drums” by the Bahamans; drum music by the Yoruba of Nigeria; and Lye's sculpture “Twister.” Assistant: Steven Jones. (1979, 4 mins)
Tal Farlow--Westcoast Premiere! Completed posthumously by Steven Jones, who did the synchronization. (1980, 4 mins)