Len Lye Movies

Lye created a series of scratched images in the 1950s – more regular or geometric than his usual style – to accompany Rock...

The story of how newspapers were distributed during the Blitz, stressing the importance of an accurate and objective press on the home front.

A fictional enactment of the deadly contest between a British soldier and a German sniper hiding in a tree. Kill or Be Killed differs from most army...

Lye edited together “swing” versions of the popular Lambeth Walk (including Django Reinhardt on guitar and Stephane Grapelli on violin),...

A British WWII propaganda short warning citizens that Nazi sympathizers could be listening to their everyday conversations to discover important...

Documentary about the Kiwi artist Len Lye and his legacy.

Surrealism, avant-garde sound montage, and irreverent wit might be the last thing you'd expect from a government-sponsored film about wartime...

Experimental documentary about recycling.

Documentary about New York night clubs.

Short comedic documentary about crops.

Life’s Musical Minute, recently re-discovered, is a short promotional film of this kind, based on Gene Krupa’s drum solo from...

Lye completed his last great film a few months before his death at the age of 78. The film returned to the black-and-white techniques of Free...

Len Lye usually timed his films with great care to match their soundtracks, but for All Souls Carnival, he and composer Henry Brant worked...

With the screen split asymmetrically, one part in positive, the other negative, the film documents the evolution of simple celled organic forms into...

Len Lye made Pictures for Percussion as a sample for television stations while living in the United States.

This was another sample promotional film, which Lye offered to television stations. He scratched some dramatic black-and-white abstract images,...

In 1959 the United Nations commissioned Lye to make this one-minute film, “Fountain of Hope,” to publicize United Nations Day (24th...

Documentary about women factory workers.

This riot of color was a showcase for Lye’s hand-painted and stenciled imagery. Sponsored by Imperial Airways, it incorporates the...