Over the weekend I watched the last part of a documentary about *Lawrence Jordan (Moments of Illumination) on a Buddhist channel, his creative mind was intriguing and while I had been zapping, looking for something interesting to watch, I got stuck on this channel. It was perfect timing… He was telling about how he bought a picture book with the last bit of money that he had and how this book changed his entire life.
Lawrence Jordan makes animation films by cutting images by hand, he then places these on a background: a collage of many different pictures that he moves around filming frame by frame. The images he uses are really cool and the technique is amazingly time-consuming so extreme patience is needed. I loved the documentary and have been glued to the telly all thru the show, being totally immersed by it for hours afterwards.
His creativity is truly inspiring and his life story had a profound impact on me as I am struggling with finding new goals in life and wanting to know where things are heading. Thinking too much about certain issues can easily drag me down again whilst I’m trying to keep my spirit as lifted as possible these days (which is hard at times, trust me!). But watching this documentary made my creativity all go bouncy and wishing to create.
‘A maverick spirit in the world of avant-garde American cinema, Lawrence Jordan played an important role in the late 1950s/early 1960s San Francisco art scene. Jordan has made over seventy experimental films, including a number of fanciful, filmic animations made from collaged cut outs of Victorian engravings. The animations extend dreamlike imagery of collaged landscape into a cinematic realm of transformation and free form symbolism.’
Jordan seeks to delve into the deep structures and Jungian connotations of the mythological images his films reference. His alchemical approach to imagery creates what he has called the’theater of the mind, which you construct. That is the Underworld… the realm of the imagination. You have to have a place to work with images.’ Source to visit: Lawrence Jordan
*Lawrence Jordan is an independent filmmaker who has been working in the Bay Area in California since 1955, and making films since 1952. He has produced some 40 experimental and animation films, and three feature-length dramatic films. He is most widely known for his animated collage films. In 1970 he received a Guggenheim award to make Sacred Art Of Tibet. His animation has shown by invitation at the Cannes Film Festival.
