Parallelities, Mary Ellen Bute / Len Lye

Mary Ellen Bute, born in 1908 in Houston, Texas, and Len Lye, born in 1901 in Christchurch, New Zealand, both lived and worked in New York, where they died in the early 1980s. "The following film was designed by a modern artist to create moods through the eye, just as music creates moods through the ear." Mary Ellen Bute saw herself as a pioneer of a new film language. She constantly expanded the interconnections between painting, moving image, animation, music, technique and technology. In Len Lye's films, explosions of color or scratched plain white lines unfold directly on black film. Transferring rhythm into images or creating music from images are complex skills that Mary Ellen Bute and Len Lye perfected. They enlivened the cinematic canvas with their extraordinary, visually groundbreaking works. This program features a selection of 14 animated films - all of which will be shown in the rare 16mm format. (Melissa Dullius)

Films:
Synchromy No. 2 Mary Ellen Bute USA 1935 16 mm without dialogue 5 min.
Color Rhapsody Mary Ellen Bute USA 1948 16 mm without dialogue 6 min.
Polka Graph Mary Ellen Bute USA 1937 16 mm without dialogue 4 min.
Pastorale Mary Ellen Bute USA 1950 16 mm without dialogue 9 min.
Abstronics Mary Ellen Bute USA 1948-54 16 mm without dialogue 6 min.
Rhythm in Light Mary Ellen Bute USA 1934 16 mm without dialogue 7 min.
Spook Sport Mary Ellen Bute USA 1939 16 mm without dialogue 8 min.
Color Cry Len Lye USA 1952 16 mm without dialogue 3 min.
Free Radicals Len Lye USA 1958 16 mm without dialogue 5 min.
Rainbow Dance Len Lye GB 1936 16 mm without dialogue 5 min.
Trade Tattoo Len Lye GB 1937 16 mm without dialogue 5 min.
Kaleidoscope Len Lye GB 1935 16 mm without dialogue 4 min.
Particles in Space Len Lye GB 1966 16 mm without dialogue 4 min.
Tuslava Len Lye GB 1928 16 mm silent 10 min .