Keith Griffiths

Several well-known and pioneering abstract filmmakers discuss the history of non-objective cinema, the works of those that came before them and their own experiments in the field of visionary filmmaking.

Documentary about the abstract filmmaker.

Documentary on Andy Warhol's cinema of the sixties, made for Channel 4 in association with The Factory, MOMA and the Whitney Museum of Art and in collaboration with Simon Field.

This documentary, made seven years after the death of legendary filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye, tells Lye's story: from being a young boy staring at the sun, to travels around the Pacific and life in New York. It includes excerpts from many of his films, and interviews with second wife Ann and biographer Roger Horrocks. Len Lye himself is often heard, outlining his ideas of the ‘old brain’ and how Māori and Aboriginal art influenced his work. The grandeur of his ideas are only matched by their scale, with steel sculptures designed to be "at least 20 foot high".

This eccentric short directed by Keith Griffiths, outlines Ruiz’s work, biography and preoccupations and includes a rare interview with the director.

Stop-motion animated short film in which a puppet on a trike captures a puppet bird-man.

In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.

A 1983 film for Channel Four’s Visions, featuring interviews about the impact of Godard of British filmmakers and critics.

Interview and profile of experimental filmmaker Michael Snow from 1983. Includes extracts from 'Back and Forth', 'Wavelength', 'La Region Central', 'So Is This' and gallery piece 'Two Sides To Every Story'. Made for Channel 4 'Visions' and broadcast 19 January 1983.

Janacek: Intimate Excursions is a short experimental documentary that attempts to find visual references in the correspondence of Leos Janacek, the Czechoslovak composer.

Igor: The Paris Years, one segment of a larger biographical program created for Channel 4 on the life and times of Igor Stravinsky, finds the brothers working in a slightly different vein than the one that would come to characterize their later work. This is the first section, which covers the pianist’s “French period” from roughly 1920-1939, and it details, among other things, his connection with Jean Cocteau (who, as a matter of fact, contributes voice work to this project). Filtered through gonzo and impressionistic puppetry (often bearing strong resemblance to the work of Terry Gilliam), the film takes an unconventional and often beautiful stab at the television biography special.

An unusual documentary from the Brothers Quay and Keith Griffiths about the history of the Punch and Judy puppet show.

Using the tricks of the Flemish playwright's own trade--puppetry, masks, and a Breughelesque sense of bizarre carnival, the collaborators succeeded in bringing about a rich and sardonic humor lurking at the edge of the playwright's macabre, death-obsessed imagination in an allusive homage.