"He was like a man from Mars who saw everything from a different viewpoint, and it was this that made him original."-Julian TrevelyanHailed as one of the most creative and inventive individuals ever, Len Lye was by all accounts an astonishing man. Filmmaker, kinetic sculptor, painter, writer, theorist, he was fascinated by movement and its expressive possibilities. An experimental filmmaker his entire adult life-he was working on a film when he died at 79-Lye held "there has never been a great film unless it was created in the spirit of the experimental filmmaker." Born in New Zealand in 1901, Lye was largely self-educated and early on studied Aboriginal, Samoan, and Maori indigenous art and dance, which influenced his pioneering direct-animation films. Lye was a committed doodler, whether on film or paper or with bits of steel, and saw this as a means of accessing the old or primitive brain. "My film stuff is old brain stuff. It is nothing to the new brain and literature. It is to do with the body and kicking around." And kick around he did-scratching, painting, and batiking directly on the filmstrip, ingeniously creating vibrant and dazzling hand-made films, all without a camera. Whether composed through direct animation or another method of his invention, Lye's images pulsate with energy and vitality, a "sensory ballet" of rhythm.Kathy Geritz, PFA Associate Film Curator We are grateful to Jean-Michel Bouhours at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, who organized this series. Special thanks to Jonathan Dennis and New Zealand Film Festival; Evan Webb, Len Lye Foundation; Anne Morra, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Byrony Dixon, British Film Institute Collections (NFTA); and Susan Oxtoby, Cinematheque Ontario, for their generous assistance and guidance. A major biography of Len Lye by Roger Horrocks was recently published marking the centenary of Lye's birth. Available through the Museum Store, see page 15.Tuesday August 7, 2001