Now Available: Five Works by Lawrence Jordan
Posted February 13th, 2023 in Announcements, New Acquisitions, New Digital Files, New Films, News / Events
Now Available from Canyon Cinema: Five works by Lawrence Jordan, spanning 1956 to 2022. This new acquisition includes Jordan’s latest 16mm cut-out animation, Harper’s Bazar (2022), 2021’s Alchemy, 2007’s Silent Sonata, as well as new digitizations of two early films from the 1950s: the psychodrama Three (1956) and the collage film Minerva Looks Out Into the Zodiac (1959).
Harper’s Bazar (Lawrence Jordan, 2022, 7 minutes, color, sound, 16mm)
The ladies of 1872 are fixed in time. They inhabit the weekly fashion magazine called Harper’s Bazar. The fashionable dresses for “ladies” and children can accurately be called “costumes.” They are voluminous, extravagant, surreal. I thought what if frozen in time on the pages of the magazine they moved slightly? What might that signify if not a surreal event? I have poked into many obscure corners in my animation, but this may be the most detached from today’s world. And yet it is a part of the reality of our past.
Alchemy (Lawrence Jordan, 2021, 8 minutes, color, sound, 16mm or digital file)
In a time and place where the gracious mother Sophia weaves her tapestry from Blake, Rackham, images of men, animals, and the flora of the world; where balloons sail to the moon goddess and the ancient world protrudes; where the Luna moth meets the moon and the little sailor boy nods to the dead: the picture in motion hovers above the meditative music of John Davis.
Silent Sonata (Lawrence Jordan, 2007, 6 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Two distinct idylls: one of summer, one of winter. Accompanied by appropriate music (the sonatas are not silent), each one moves through a period of time and place. Summer takes place in my first primarily annual garden. Joanna McClure is seen moving among the brilliant annual flower colors. Winter is a misty, mood-filled exploration of the Sonoma County hills and small lakes. The time is somewhere around 1985 and is a true document of a part of what was happening in my life at that time.
Minerva Looks Out Into the Zodiac (Lawrence Jordan, 1959, 6 minutes, b&w, sound, digital file)
Twelve collages pan slowly by the camera, each one accompanied by a different passage of music, which gives each its own atmosphere or unique corner of the ‘zodiac’, the final (twelfth) collage returning to the first.
Three (Lawrence Jordan, 1956, 7 minutes, b&w, sound, digital file)
A brief inner psychological drama depicting the relationship between two men and a woman. Symbolist in nature, the characters express rage and wonder, jealousy and violence. Features Paul Dryfuss, Robert Benson, and Yvonne Fair.
