Mills Folly Microcinema presents Dreams of Gold: Animated Films by Larry Jordan, on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. Admission $5.00, free for ALL members. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
"Known principally as a maverick spirit in the world of avant-garde American cinema, Lawrence Jordan (born 1934) played an important role in the late 1950s and early 1960s San Francisco art scene. Jordan has made over fifty 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.'" –excerpt from Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle. Film descriptions from Canyon Cinema.
Hommage | 2024 | 4 minutes
The homage is to Eric Satie, who's surrealistic music I have loved all my adult life. It floats above some of my animated work, including this short film. There is a serene atmosphere, which does not overwhelm the moving visuals. And yet I feel there is an opening where anything can happen.
Fairytale | 2023 | 3.5 minutes
As John Davis's music points out, "fairytale" is a semi ominous/semi mysterious conjuring of the long ago, and far away, as rendered in the illustrations for Kingsley's Water Babies 1863. There are no cardboard witches or villains, (This is not a Disney thing), only a spirit of the frozen north. The central character is the water baby, who is an inactive watcher of the action. And the action portrays whatever leaps into the viewer's mind.
Reve d'Or | 2023 | 4 minutes
In 1894 a young Frenchman named Pierre Louys, a Greek scholar, published a volume of prose poems, titled Songs of Bilitis, Bilitis being an imaginary Greek poet of his own concoction. Coincidentally, the track I chose to accompany my film is titled simply "Bilitis." I cannot guarantee that the lyrics below, sung by Sarah Brightman are these, but again coincidentally they are from Louys's prose poem, titled "Bilitis": "One woman envelops her self in White wool. Another covers her self with flowers, with green leaves, and with grapes. As for me, I live only when I am naked. My lover takes me as I am, without robe or jewels, or sandals. Here is Bilitis, quite alone."
We are presented on the screen with a sequence of Arcadian images, the intent of which is to raise consciousness one full octave, and to give the viewer a strong hint that a stream of brightness runs through the universe. One morning, when spring was breaking in the trees, I had a euphoric sensation, looking into the sky: a golden dream (Reve d'Or in French, the name of one of my roses, climbing in the persimmon tree.) I set about finding images which I believed portrayed this feeling. This short film, is the result.
Belle du Jour | 2021 | 9 minutes
In a timeless world of surreal possibilities, the conjunctions and strange meetings of humans, animals and improbable objects coalesce, linger and move on to the truly timeless and ethereal music of John Davis. There are no hidden meanings in these conjunctions, except those that form in the mind of the receptive viewer. To me that is the ultimate lesson of the surreal path. I have tried to infuse a certain spiritual essence into the flow of imagery. That is all.
Enid's Idyll | 2004 | 16 minutes
Jordan has used 46 engraved Gustave Doré illustrations to Idylls of the King as settings for his extravigantly romantic saga. As Enid, the protagonist, is seen in a vast array of scenes from deep forests to castle keeps, her champion is sometimes with her, sometimes away fighting archetypal foes. She dies, and through the magic of Gustav Mahler's resurrection symphony, lives again. Main themes love, death, and resurrection.
Pink Swine | 1963 | 3 minutes
In the dada tradition: ball bearings, horses and angels dance with gears, wheels and hair brushes, to a Beatles song. "Pink Swine" is a sleeper in the repertoire of Jordan's many animations.
Duo Concertantes | 1964 | 9 minutes
An established classic. Steel engravings form a surrealistic dream world. It can be shown to any adventurous audience, young or old, and has never disappointed. The theme: resurrection, rebirth, flight into higher spheres was thought to be out-moded in this century's art. Evidently not, judging from the impact of the film on viewers. Awards: First Prize, Ann Arbor Film Festival; Milwaukee Art Center Festival; First Prize, Kent Film Festival; First Prize, Art Institute of Chicago Film Festival; Second Prize, University of Cincinnati Film Festival. Awards: First Prize, Ann Arbor Film Festival; Milwaukee Art Center Festival; First Prize, Kent Film Festival; First Prize, Art Institute of Chicago Film Festival; Second Prize, University of Cincinnati Film Festival.
Gymnopedies | 1965 | 6 minutes
The theme is Weightlessness. Objects and characters are cut loose from habitual meanings, also from tensions and gravitational limitations. A lyric Eric Satie track accompanies the film. Such a portrait seems necessary from time to time to remind us that equilibrium and harmony are possible, and that we will not dissolve into a jelly if we allow ourselves to relax into them: A horseman rides through the landscape, through the town, but never arrives anywhere in particular. An acrobat swings on a rope above a canal in Venice, and is content just to swing there. Nothing threatens to disturb them. This film is a total contrast to the Kafka-like oddities of Eastern European animation. "It is impossible not to hallucinate on your own while watching it." - Lita Eliseu, East Village Other
Our Lady of the Sphere | 1969 | 10 minutes
The mystical Lady with the orbital head moves through the carnival of life in a Surreal Adventure. A classic. Show it to anyone who likes movies.
"Our Lady of the Sphere - perhaps Jordan's most exquisitely perfect creation - is a color collage of roccoco imagery juxtaposed with symbols of the space age. The images metamorphose, transmute, interpenetrate and otherwise change with the fluid effervescence of bubbles rising out of water, punctuated by sudden flashes of light, alarm buzzers and abrupt visual surprises. It is a mystical, jewel-like creation, like a Joseph Cornell box come to life." - Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle
ABOUT MILLS FOLLY MICROCINEMA
Mills Folly Microcinema showcases nationally recognized experimental film and video art from the festival and microcinema circuit. We network with regional filmmakers and organizations to bring filmmakers and guest programmers to Madison for screenings. And we incubate local experimental filmmaking by providing screen time at Project Projection events.
