Conversations at the Edge: Current Schedule

1964–2010, Lawrence Jordan, USA, 16mm and 35mm, ca 68 minutes + discussion
Lawrence Jordan in person!
Presented in collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center, which screens a second program of Jordan’s work November 9.

Best known for his singular cutout animation style, the films of avant-garde great Lawrence Jordan channel the unconscious through surreal compositions of found graphics, drawings, and engravings by masters like Gustav Doré. Jordan co-founded Canyon Cinema, collaborated with the likes of Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell, and continues to make groundbreaking work to this day. This program pairs his celebrated collage films, Our Lady of the Sphere (1969, shown in 35mm) and Cosmic Alchemy (2010), with lesser-known poetic documentaries like Visions of a City (1978).

Lawrence Jordan (b. 1934, Denver, CO) 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, and his animation has shown by invitation at the Cannes Film Festival. Jordan is one of the founding directors of Canyon Cinema Cooperative, and he has shown films and lectured throughout the country.