Doodlin': impressions of Len Lye

Directed by Keith Griffiths, famous for his art documentaries and his work with the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer, “Doodlin’” explores the life and works of Len Lye. The importance of the landscape and his early years living in New Zealand, Australia and Samoa are explored as well as his introduction to the avant garde of London and Europe generally and later those of New York where he moved to in the 1940’s. Lively interviews with his close friends and collaborators include: film maker Stan Brakhage, wife Ann Lye, composer Jack Ellit, editor Paul Barnes, artist Ray Thorburn, biographer Roger Horrocks and John Matthews who worked with Lye on the engineering of his kinetic sculpture. Lye discusses the process of Doodlin’ as a means to unlock the subconscious and his work being ‘old brain stuff’. Great footage and examples of Lye making films using his pioneering ‘direct film’ technique in the making of “Free radicals” and “Particles in Space” (both 1979). Footage of sculptures include: ‘Universe’ (1976), ‘Blade’ (1976), and ‘Trilogy’.