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 visual music.
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[edit] Early 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 - Early Works
James completed seven short films over four decades, each film requiring approximately five years of work. James collaborated with his brother John for some of his film work.
The first of the brothers' films was Twenty-Four Variations on an Original Theme. Its structure was influenced by Schoenberg's serial principles.
James spent 3 years working on Variations on a Circle (1942), which lasts some 20 minutes, and was made with 8mm film.
James and John created their series of Five 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.
In 1946, the brothers travelled to San Francisco Museum of Art to show their films at the first of ten annual "Art in Cinema" festivals.
Following this period, James became more involved in spiritual interests such as Jungian psychology, alchemy, yoga, Tao, and Krishnamurti. These interests heavily influenced his later work.
[edit] Career - Later Works
Between 1950 and 1955, James laboured to construct a truly astounding masterpiece, Yantra. The film was produced entirely by hand. By punching grid patterns in 5" by 7" cards with a pin, James was able to paint through these pinholes onto other 5" x 7" cards, to create images of rich complexity and give the finished work a very dynamic and flowing motion.
A version of Yantra was shown at the historic Vortex Concerts in San Francisco's Morrison planetarium in 1957. Here it acquired its soundtrack, Henk Badings’ "Cain and Abel".
Analogue computer equipment developed by brother John, allowed James to complete Lapis (1965) in two years, when it might have taken seven years otherwise. James drew dot patterns again for this film, but the camera was positioned using computer control, allowing each image to be overlaid from multiple angles. 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.
Dwija (1973), meaning "twice-born" or "soul" in Sanskrit. 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), meaning "no name" in Chinese, repeats a single action over and over - a particle disappears into infinity, and returns as a wave. James described the particle-to-wave action in Wu Ming as being "like throwing a pebble into water and seeing the ripples spread out".
His two final films, intended to form a quartet with Dwija and Wu Ming, were Kang Jing Xiang and Li, which were left incomplete when James died April 8, 1982, after a brief and unexpected illness. Kang was completed post-humously according to James' instructions. His short test for Li is believed to be lost.
[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 Exercises #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, constructed by Jordan Belson from James' footage
- Lapis (1963 - 1966) 10 min, 16mm
- Dwi-Ja (1974), 16mm
- Wu Ming (1977) 17 min, 16mm
- Kang Jing Xiang (1982) 13 min, 16mm
- Li (unfinished)
[edit] Further Reading
Willis, Holly: Cinema Du Dots: LA Weekly, 2005
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.
Bendazzi, Giannalberto. Cartoons. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Sightlines. New York: Educational Film Library Association, Winter 1985-86
Moritz, William. "The Poetic Eye-- Visionary Filmmaker James Whitney, An Appreciation." The Advocate. Los Angeles: David B. Goodstein, April 2, 1985.
Moritz, William. "James Whitney Retrospective" Toronto 1984 International Animation Festival. 1984
Whitney, James. "Yantra." New Magazine Beyond Baroque Foundation, May 1977
Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant Garde 1943-1978. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Jacobs, Lewis. "Avant-Garde Production in America." Experiment in Film. New York: Arno Press, 1970
