About this user
All the films on this YouTube channel were made between 1975 and 1981 and are here thanks to the digital technology which has given music, film and just about everything a new lease of life.
About the films:
'Reel People'
was made in 1975/76 using a 16mm Bolex cine camera on a home-made rostrum. Featuring animated caricatures of Jeremy Thorpe, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Jim Callaghan, Spike Milligan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew and Gerald Ford, Reel People won 'Best First Film' at the 1977 London Amateur Film Festival. Other showings include the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Channel Four and numerous international film festivals, including London, Annecy and Chicago.
For the purposes of YouTube, I've split this film into three parts: British politicians, U.S. presidents and Spike Milligan.
'About Face'
is set to the music of Claude Jauvin and features caricatures of Henry the VIII, Mick Jagger, Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, The Marx Brothers, David Bowie and a worm. About Face was runner-up in the Grierson Award for Best Short Film of 1978 and was screened on the inaugural day of Channel Four television in November 1982. Other showings include The Arts Council Film Tour and the film festivals of Annecy, Zagreb, Los Angeles, Tampere, Varna, Lucca, Wellington and more..
'After Beardsley'
What might we have expected to see had Aubrey Beardsley magically picked up his pen 80 years after his death? After Beardsley (made in 1981) depicts the decadence of contemporary New York in the style and spirit of Aubrey Beardsley, to original music by Ronnie Fowler. Subjects Beardsley may have been drawn to - Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and John Lennon - make cameo appearances in the film. After Beardsley won the French 'Prix de Qualité' in 1981 and in 1998 was shown on a continuous loop at the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of the 6-month Beardsley Centenary Exhibition. Other showings include British, French, German and Swiss Television and numerous film festivals around the world.
To fit the film on YouTube I had to cut it into three parts. The credits are impossible to read on anything other than a cinema screen, so here they are:
Written and drawn by Chris James
Music by Ronnie Fowler
Camera Julian Holdaway and Richard Wolff
Photographs of Beardsley courtesy of the Hulton Picture Library and hand colored by Helena Zakchevska-Rucinska.
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BIO: Born New York City. Raised there and in Tucson AZ, Evanston and Libertyville IL before moving to England aged 18.
Lived variously in London, Gloucestershire, Dubrovnik ('85 to '88) and Staffordshire. Now residing in Penzance, Cornwall.
chrisjames60
liked
10 months ago
