Lloyd Michael Williams

Lloyd Michael Williams

Birth : 1940-01-01, Brooklyn, New York, USA

History

Lloyd Michael Williams (born in 1940) is an American experimental filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York. His first interest in motion was with marionettes. He became involved with photography and by the time he was thirteen was making films. During high school Lloyd was an usher at Cinema 16 in New York City, the only venue exhibiting 16mm experimental movies. Inspired by the poem by Lewis Carroll, and the work he was seeing, Lloyd made "Jabberwock" and won the Silver Medallion at the Cannes Film Festival, 1959. Lloyd entered New York University majoring in Film, Television & Radio. "They’re Off" was made at the NYU Summer Motion Picture Workshop, which Lloyd directed in 1959. In 1960 Lloyd worked with Mary Ellen Bute on "The Boy with Green Hair." He produced "Ursula" while he was a student and won the Bronze Medallion at Cannes in 1961. "The Creation" is more directed at radio and television commercials than at religion, it points out mankind’s blind belief in both. After graduating in 1962, Lloyd moved to Chicago to work for the Fred Niles Film Company. He was an assistant director for TV commercials for many familiar household products. Returning to New York, he worked for Ogilvy Benson & Mather, an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. Lloyd designed commercial story boards and became an assistant producer of television commercials, and a member of the Directors Guild of America. In 1964 Lloyd won a Fulbright to study cinematography in France and while in Paris began shooting sequences for "Line of Apogee." Electronic music pioneer Vladimir Ussachevsky thought so much of the film he composed the original electronic score. In 1975 Suzanne Ciani, famous for the electronic sound heard around the world, the Coca Cola Pop ‘n Pour, composed the soundtrack for "Rainbow’s Children." In the mid seventies Lloyd served as cinematographer for Rosa Von Praunheim and began shooting film with his protégé, Adrian Salsgiver. But in 1979, Lloyd’s Bolex movie camera was stolen. Lloyd picked up a Bolex again in 1997 to act as cinematographer for Adrian. Adrian taught himself computer film editing and used Lloyd's old and new film to create "Rainbow’s Child," completed in 2001. In 2003, Lloyd and Adrian collaborated on a digital movie, The Kingdom of UUFH, documenting the 31st and final Renaissance Faire of Huntington, NY. Lloyd made other 16mm films not yet digitized. Special thanks to Jonas Mekas for the safekeeping of Lloyd’s films. Lloyd lives on Long Island and is an active member of the New American Cinema Group.

Profile

Lloyd Michael Williams

Movies

Experiments in Terror
Experiments in Terror
Director
A collection of short experimental horror films, some well-known, some not.
Rainbow's Children
Rainbow's Children
Director
In 'Rainbow's Children', Lloyd Williams reveals the dreamer awakening; erotic displacements of dreams are transformed into the erotic realities of life itself – although still poetically suffused with a dream like languor which the filmmaker cannot escape. The texture of flesh, the ambiguity of longing and the colors of psychedelic apotheosis all merge into a languorous ecstasy which Lloyd Williams is adept in translating into the medium of film. All the varieties of film technique: slow motion, multiple-exposure, fast motion, camera in full flight and frozen image, he uses for the revelation of his intense fantasy, whether from dreams or from real-life or from hallucinated contemplation. His work shows that the dreamer is, indeed, awakening into a whole new world of erotic fantasy, muted with desire. If hard core films shock you, the films of Lloyd Williams will caress you." –Charles Boultenhouse
Two Images For a Computer Piece (With an Interlude)
Two Images For a Computer Piece (With an Interlude)
Director
Music composed, modified and assembled by Vladimir Ussachevsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Laboratory. The complete, extended composition is synchronized with a film by Lloyd Michael Williams, expressly created for the occasion. During the final stages of composition all sound materials were further modified and assembled at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Studio.
Line of Apogee
Line of Apogee
Original electronic score by Vladamire Ussachevsky. My works are that of a person who fought the notion that he was gay because, in the time frame of the 50's 60's & 70's anything gay was perverted and evil LINE OF APOGEE is a dream chronicle of 48 minutes in color and black and white shot of 16 mm, with an original electronic score by Valdimir Ussachevshy. Ussachevsky was one of the founders of the form of electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Lab at Columbia University in New York City in the 1960s. It took the Grand Prize at the St. Lawrence Film Festival. 'An Extraordinary trip in Sensory Experience.' Wild colorful imagery probing a lifetime of a man's dreams' said Cue magazine 'A sumptuous color film... disturbing but visually beautiful psychological exploration utilizing surrealistic imagery' – Dance Magazine.
Line of Apogee
Line of Apogee
Director
Original electronic score by Vladamire Ussachevsky. My works are that of a person who fought the notion that he was gay because, in the time frame of the 50's 60's & 70's anything gay was perverted and evil LINE OF APOGEE is a dream chronicle of 48 minutes in color and black and white shot of 16 mm, with an original electronic score by Valdimir Ussachevshy. Ussachevsky was one of the founders of the form of electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Lab at Columbia University in New York City in the 1960s. It took the Grand Prize at the St. Lawrence Film Festival. 'An Extraordinary trip in Sensory Experience.' Wild colorful imagery probing a lifetime of a man's dreams' said Cue magazine 'A sumptuous color film... disturbing but visually beautiful psychological exploration utilizing surrealistic imagery' – Dance Magazine.
For Life, Against the War
For Life, Against the War
Director
First shown on January 30, 1967, FOR LIFE AGAINST THE WAR was an open-call, collective statement from American independent filmmakers disparate in style and sensibility but united by their opposition to the Vietnam War. Part of the protest festival Week of the Angry Arts, the epic compilation film incorporated minute-long segments which were sent from many corners of the country, spliced together and projected. The original presentation of the works was more of an open forum with no curation or selection, and in 2000 Anthology Film Archives preserved a print featuring around 40 films from over 60 submissions.
The Creation
The Creation
Director
A minimalistic animation of scribbled texts and shapes, set to an impressive sound collage that skewers advertising.
Wipes
Wipes
Director
Frenetic and vibrant exploration of the titular effect, utilizing recognizable symbols like stars, crosses, and swastikas.
Opus #5
Opus #5
Director
A sinister montage intimates the hellish void facing a man emptying bottles by the river. Sandy Fisher’s densely reverberating electronic score provides strong support for Lloyd Williams’ cultic collage of skulls, chess boards and fire.
Ursula
Ursula
Director
Young Ursula plays in a tree and ruins her fancy dress. Her elderly mother teaches her a cruel lesson about whether things can ever be mended; what Ursula learns about how to behave may not be what her mother intended.
Jabberwock
Jabberwock
Director
Lewis Carroll adaptation, won the Silver Medallion at the Cannes Film Festival.
They're Off
They're Off
Director
A satire movie about sports car racing at the Little Lemans, directed while at New York University and very populare among sports car devotees.
Les Poissons
Les Poissons
Director
Life under the sea. Animated paper cutouts.