Len Lye

A pioneer of direct-animation, Len Lye (1901-1980) was also a highly innovative painter, photographer and poet, as well as an important figure in kinetic sculpture. Born in New Zealand, Lye left home as a young man in search of film activity and the stimulation that would satisfy what he called his preoccupation with art and movement. (harvard.edu)

'Vibrating dots and dashes which swirled, pulsed, squiggled and darted about the screen - particles of energy in space.' (Len Lye)

Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film. (imdb)

With the screen split asymmetrically, one part in positive, the other negative, the film documents the evolution of simple celled organic forms into chains of cells then more complex images from tribal cultures and contemporary modernist concepts. The images react, interpenetrate, perhaps attack, absorb and separate, until a final symbiosis (or redemption?) is achieved. (imdb)

From a surreal paradise a shower of oil revives the thirsty cars and creatures. (imdb)

The film was made by colorful printing of footage combined with drawing directly on film. The bouncy music drives home the message heard at the end of the film, promoting the GPO (General Post Office): "The Post Office Savings Bank puts a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for you. No deposit too small for the Post Office Savings Bank." (imdb)

Placed against documentary footage and silhouettes of various trains and workers quickly mailing various packages, it's a kaleidescope of images with various typed-words printed on screen like: "The rhythm of trade is maintained by the mails" over and over again. (imdb comments)

The music played during this short is called Honolulu Blues by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. With various silhouettes of planes flying by and the words "Imperial Airways" printed constantly at the end (imdb comments)

A film made without a camera by painting directly onto the celluloid. (imdb)

A film made without a camera by painting directly onto the celluloid. (imdb)

Abstract short of men working on an assembly line.

Black and white animation, painted directly on film.

Black and white animation, painted directly on film.

Correspondence between young lovers nearly ends in disaster through a mistake in postal district. Fortunately the GPO spots the error and all ends will, but with the moral that correspondents should get the address right. (imdb)

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a three-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

A recipe for a wartime vegetable pie. (imdb)

A fictional enactment of the deadly contest between a British soldier and a German sniper hiding in a tree. Kill or Be Killed differs from most army instructional films because of its powerful dramatization.

A British WWII propaganda short warning citizens that Nazi sympathizers could be listening to their everyday conversations to discover important information about the war effort.

Documenatry about newspapers in wartime.