Movies: Les Blank

80-year-old Julie Lyon, sister of Old Time fiddler Tommy Jarrell, lights up this gem of a film as she spins tales of her Appalachian childhood in North Carolina - and her first romance....

An examination of the artistic and historical roots of today's tattoo explosion....

A film created by Les Blank and Maureen Gosling from footage that was cut from the documentary "Always for Pleasure" (1978) about Mardi Gras in New Orleans....

Les Blank continued filming the Maestro after the original film “The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists” was completed. Here are the Maestro’s latest creations and more on his uncompromising philosophy of art and life....

This short film by Les Blank with Skip Gerson features the charismatic legendary blues icon Lightnin' Hopkins sing a beautiful song about a stuttering boy who learns that he can communicate through singing. Also features Billy Bizor on harmonica....

In 1967 Les Blank and Skip Gerson were hired to work in Thailand on a documentary about the B52 Bomber and its use in bombing campaigns over Vietnam....

Lightnin' Hopkins sings about playing cards with Les Blank and Skip Gerson - a card game he won which turned critical to the making of the film "The Blues Accordin' To Lightnin' Hopkins." After filming 13 songs, Lightnin' had told Les and Skip that h...

Directed by Terry Nowak. This early film about the Southern California Renaissance Fair, with Les Blank as cameraman, is shot in sensuous detail on a 16mm Bell & Howell camera. It is apparent in this early work that Blank was already developing his o...

In a mountain village in southwestern China, just south of Tibet, one of the last remaining traditional bearers of the Lisu ethnic group is amid the mountains of new changes seeping into every crevice of their lives. Will their tradition survive?...

One of Les Blank's industrial films, which follows a Holly Farms "broiler" chicken from factory incubation to the county fair barbecue pit. A hilarious, disturbing and surreal look at a large-scale chicken farm producing 156 million chickens a year! ...

This creative educational film by Pieter Van Deusen features a variety of string instruments performed by noted musicians such as Shamim Ahmed Kahn. This film was part of a music film series for Churchill Films: Wind Sounds, Percussion Sounds, and an...

This aloha-filled portrait of Auntie Irmgard Farden Aluli, one of Hawaii's best loved composers, gently focuses on Hawai'ian women's contributions to the family structure, art, music and dance. An intimate glimpse into the real culture of the islands...

This little-known Blank gem is a portrait of the Serbian-American communities of Chicago and California, highlighting their history in this country, their music, dancing, and religion....

Conjoined fables are told, one Japanese, the other African, a ghost story colliding with farcical folklore....

This softball umpire training film was one of Les Blank's early industrial films made in 1962 prior to his independent filmmaking career. He made over 20 industrial films which helped him hone his skills as a filmmaker. Les recorded his own voice for...

This film, photographed and edited by Les Blank, produced and directed by Pieter Van Deusen, documents a spontaneously improvised concert by musician Christopher Tree. With his one-man orchestra, including 40 Tibetan temple gongs, flutes, tympani and...

The Ways of Water was made with the Earth Science Curriculum Project and the Environmental Studies Project of the American Geological Institute. A study of the water cycle on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, the narratorless, poetic film is...

This short film features Les Blank (in a rare acting role) and Getachew Abbai. Directed by David Lawrence. This was a student film made at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Black & white. 10 minutes. 1960....

One of Les Blank's student films: a horror film following a young couple....

From Worldcat: Presents new musical sounds and new ways of treating old sounds. Includes examples of chance music, tape music, synthesizer music, and other twentieth century innovations....