James Whitney-Lapis

Written by Joe D on February 14th, 2023

Working on equipment developed by his bother John, Jams Whitney created this mesmerizing trance inducing film bar in 1966. John was a pioneer in computer animation, using WWII trajectory plotting machines for filmmaking. He acquired these devices after the War as surplus therefore inexpensive. The abstract animation movement really took off then with people like Jordan Belson, Harry Smith, Hy Hirsch, and many others. Oskar Fischinger was one of the grandaddies of the genre along with people like Viking Eggling and Hans Richter. Anyway check out this film. Try to see a better quality version, projected on film if possible to really experience it.

 

Gumby and Pokey In The Dough

Written by Joe D on October 20th, 2021

                                                                                       Art Clokey and his pal Gumby

Here is a surreal Fairy Tale in Stop motion Claymation that freaked me out as a young kid. Gumby always had elements of strangeness. There’s one about Indians thats also pretty deep. These were made by Art Clokey, who I hear tell, dropped LSD and became a free love hippie type , abandoning his middle class family and chasing teen aged chicks, at least so the legend goes.

                        Sneaky Pete Kleinow

One of the animators on Gumby was the amazing Sneaky Pete Kleinow, who later went on to animate the Terminator metal monster in the first Terminator film. He also did the Pilsbury dough Boy, Poppin Fresh, a lot of commercials. But he was also an amazing pedal steel guitar player! Check out his playing on Frank Zappas Waka Jawaka album, Outstanding. And he played on a lot of C&W records, plus he was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers. What an unsung genius!

Time Piece Jim Henson

Written by Joe D on July 19th, 2021

Before he started making Muppets Jim Henson made films, here’s one of them: Time Piece.

Frank Film

Written by Joe D on July 12th, 2021

Here it is! The Amazing Frank Film!

Jordan Belson

Written by Joe D on February 17th, 2021

Henry Jacobs and Jordan Belson at the Morrison Planetarium, 1959.

Here is a sample of the mystical filmmaking of Jordan Belson. Many think of him as trhe father of the 60’s psychedelic light shows, he put on a series of Abstract Visual Concerts at the Morrison Planetaium in 1957. Billed as the Vortex series, he collaborated with a sound Artist, Henry Jacobs, who played all kinds of World music, Music Concrete, Karlheinz Stockhausen, etc. I guess these concerts were too wild for the Planetarium and they stopped them. Belson began making films using his experience with the Light Shows as inspiration. I spoke to him on the telephone once many years ago at the behest of Harry Smith, another San Francisco based abstract filmmaker. Harry wanted me to have Belson send hi m some glass negatives of a series of Jazz paintings Harry did. These were Abstract Expressions of particular songs, like Bloomdido by Charlie Parker. Belson never sent the slides so I hope they are preserved somewhere and will be published one day. Anyway check this out and try to see his films projected in a theater. I saw them at the Anthology Film Archive in NYC. Now the Center For Visual Music, CVM is programming shows at museums around the world so keep your eyes open and go see them.

Special added Bonus Harry Smith’s Jazz painting of Dizzy Gillespie’s Manteca.

Harry Smith’s Early Abstractions

Written by Joe D on June 22nd, 2020

 

Here is a great animated film by Harry Smith. I knew him and used to visit him at The Chelsea Hotel on W.23rd street in NYC. Anyway check it out.

Tango by Zbignew Rybczyński

Written by Joe D on May 22nd, 2019

Here is an amazing film made in an optical printer by the talented Zbignew Rybczyński. I met him in NYC years ago , he had a company called 525. He was an early adopter of Hi Def video. But this was done on film.

 

 

 

When Herzog Rescued Phoenix

Written by Joe D on April 6th, 2019

Here’s another animation by the genius that did Lynch Meets Lucas, Sascha Ciezata.

Astro Boy

Written by Joe D on January 15th, 2019

 

Goback to your childhood, well, my childhood and check out the great cartoon Astro Boy! Created by the “Father of Manga”  Osamu Tezuka. Astro boy appeared in comic form in 1952, he was called Mighty Atom in Japan. The animated series was started in 1963.  He’s like a modern super powered Pinocchio. So check him out!

Pablo Ferro passes on.

Written by Joe D on November 17th, 2018

My dear friend Pablo Ferro passed away last night at the age of 83. He was the greatest, nicest guy. Super talented, he loved working, creating, doing incredible things.He was friend and collaborator to Stanley Kubrick, Hal Ashby, Bob Downey, Steve McQueen, Jeff Bridges, so many amazing people. He got me the job editing The Sunchaser for Michael Cimino and I tried to get him gigs whenever I could. Actually Pablo gave Cimino his start in filmmaking.  He was a legend. So raise a glass to a departed genius. Here’s a taste of his crazy magic.

Bruce Bicksford Twin Peaks

Written by Joe D on October 22nd, 2018


Bruce Bicksford is a genius animator I first became aware of back in the 70’s when he was collaborating with Frank Zappa on Baby Snakes. It makes perfect sense that he would be drawn to the mysterious word of Twin Peaks.

 

Hotel Modern & Arthur Sauer: The Great War at REDCAT!

Written by Joe D on April 17th, 2015

I am going to this show, it looks amazing. Tickets are still available. Check it out.
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This reminds me of a scene in a cool Italian film Grazie Zia, check that out too.Read all about it here. It also reminds me of a play I saw at the Public Theater in NYC. The Mabou Mines production of a Samuel Beckett Radio Play The Lost Ones. Man it was cool, more about that later.