James Whitney (filmmaker)
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For other people named James Whitney, see James Whitney (disambiguation)
| James Whitney | |
| Born | December 27, 1921 Pasadena, California, USA |
| Died | April 8, 1982 Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Film |
| Movement | Visionary Cinema |
| Famous works | Lapis, Yantra |
| Awards | Grand Prize, 1949 Brussels Experimental Film Competition |
James Whitney (December 27, 1921 - April 8, 1982), younger brother of John, was a film director universally regarded as one of the great masters of visionary cinema.
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[edit] Life
James Whitney was born December 27, 1921, in Pasadena, California, and lived all his life in the Los Angeles area. He studied painting, and traveled in England before the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, he returned to Pasadena.
[edit] Career
During his 43-year career, James made only seven short films, logging about five years of solid work on each one. James prepared all of his films by hand, and infused them with a genuine mystical sensibility. James collaborated with his brother John for much of his film work.
The first of his films, Twenty-Four Variations on an Original Theme, was visually constructed by analogy to Schoenberg's serial principles, with a given optical "tone-row"(a "P" shaped configuration formed by an overlapping circle and rectangle) submitted to various inversions, clustering, retrogressions, counterpoints. The silent images perform a cogent dynamic all their own.
Variations on a Circle (1942), lasts some 20 minutes, and made use of variable speed control on 8mm projectors.
James and John created their remarkable series of Film Exercises (John #1 and #5, James #2, #3 and #4) between 1943 and 1944, for which the brothers won a Grand Prize at the 1949 Brussels Experimental Film Competition.
Following this period, James became increasingly involved in contemplative, spiritual interests- Jungian psychology, alchemy, yoga, Tao, Krishnamurti and consciousness expansion. These interests heavily influenced his later work.
Between 1950 and 1955, James constructed an astonishing masterpiece, Yantra, by punching grid patterns in 5" by 7" cards with a pin, and then painting through these pinholes onto other 5" x 7" cards, to create images of rich complexity and dynamism.
Yantra crystallized into its final form in 1957, when it was shown at the historic Vortex Concerts in San Francisco's planetarium.
Analogue computer equipment developed by his brother allowed James to complete Lapis (1965) in two years, when it might have taken seven years by hand. In this piece smaller circles oscillate in and out in an array of colors resembling a kaleidoscope while being accompanied by Indian sitar music. The patterns become hypnotic and trance inducing. This work clearly correlates the auditory and the visual and is a wonderful example of the concept of synaesthesia.
Dwi-Ja (1973), meaning "twice-born" or "soul" in Sanskrit, runs almost half an hour at silent speed. It is completely solarized, and much of the imagery is re-photographed by rear-projection to create a constant flow of hardly definable transformations of color and form.
Wu Ming (1977) offers one of the most lucid and rewarding experiences on film. At 17 minutes long, Wu Ming consists of one simple gesture, one action-reaction: a particle vanishes into infinity and rebounds as expanding waves.
His two final films, intended to form a trilogy with Wu Ming, Kang Jing Xiang and Li, were left incomplete when James died April 8, 1982, after a brief and unexpected illness.
[edit] Filmography
- Twenty Four Variations on an Original Theme (with John Whitney) (1939-1940) 5 min, 8mm
- 3 Untitled Films (with John Whitney) (1940-1942) 15 min 8mm
- Variations on a Circle (1941 - 1942) 9 min, 16mm
- Film Excercises #2, #3 (1943 - 1944) 3 min, 16mm and #4 (1944) 8 min, 16mm
- Yantra (1950 - 1957) 8 min, 16mm
- High Voltage (1957) 3 min, 16mm
- Lapis (1963 - 1966) 10 min, 16mm
- Dwi-Ja (1974) 29 min, 16mm
- Wu Ming (1977) 17 min, 16mm
- Kang Jing Xiang (unfinished) (1982) 13 min, 16mm
- Li (unfinished)
[edit] References
Holly Willis, Cinema Du Dots: LA Weekly, 2005
Bendazzi, Giannalberto. Cartoons. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Jacobs, Lewis. "Avant-Garde Production in America." Experiment in Film. New York: Arno Press, 1970
Moritz, William. "James Whitney Retrospective" Toronto 1984 International Animation Festival. 1984
Sightlines. New York: Educational Film Library Association, Winter 1985-86
Moritz, William. "James Whitney." Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film. Boston: Harvard Film Archives, 1996
Moritz, William. "James Whitney." L'art du Mouvement: Cinema du Musee National d'art Moderne. Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1996
Moritz, William. "In Memoriam James Whitney." Osnabruck Media Art Festival program May 1996.
Moritz, William. "The Poetic Eye-- Visionary Filmmaker James Whitney, An Appreciation." The Advocate. Los Angeles: David B. Goodstein, April 2, 1985.
Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary FIlm: The American Avant Garde 1943-1978. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Whitney, James. "Yantra." New Magazine Beyond Baroque Foundation, May 1977
