Len Lye – Swinging the Lambeth Walk
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

I recently attended a screening of some animation shorts and discovered the extraordinary work of Len Lye – a New Zealand artist / film-maker who worked his passage to Britain as a coal trimmer on a steam ship in 1926. His talents soon drew him to the attention of the GPO film unit, where his creativity flourished.  This richly imaginative film, set to the music of the Lambeth Walk, pays repeated viewing.  Long before the days of Flash, CGI, Final Cut Pro – this was animation at its most time consuming.  Painting directly onto the film stock.