Audio By Carbonatix
Avant-garde animator Larry Jordan, who has crafted more than fifty experimental shorts since the 1950s, compares his creative process to alchemy. “The common conception of alchemy is trying to make gold out of lead. That was not really what it was,” he says. “It was trying to find something more universal than just making gold. In a spiritual sense, it was the alchemist transforming himself or herself into something beyond what they had originally been. It’s a process of spiritual transformation. I work with that in the animation films.”
Jordan’s animations often layer symbols from mythology and classical arts to tap into the viewer’s subconscious and spark a sense of awe. For example, in his most famous film, “Our Lady of the Sphere,” from 1969, he looks at a circular shape: “It’s not personal to me, but it’s pretty basic to humanity: the sun, the moon, the earth.”
Tonight, Jordan will present a program of his works as part of the First Person Cinema series at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The screening will include older films, such as “Water Light” and a 35mm reconstruction of “Our Lady of the Sphere,” as well as recent works like “Blue Skies” and “Beyond Enchantment.” The program starts at 7 p.m. at the Visual Arts Complex on CU’s Boulder campus; tickets are $4. For more information, go to internationalfilmseries.com/first_person_cinema or call 303-492-7574.
Mon., Nov. 17, 7 p.m., 2014
