Lawrence Janiak

DL2 (Disintegration Line #2)

Lawrence Janiak

DL2 reflects the influence of the American Bauhaus movement in Chicago introduced by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy during the late 30s/early 40s. The fim was made by shocking ten-foot strips of unprocessed black and white film into tanks of cold water, fixer, hot water, developer and then repeating the process. Lawrence Janiak arranged them into what he called "interesting sequences," optically printed through various pieces of color gels, carefully labeling each color and repeating them at various speeds.

Life and Film

Robert Stiegler, Lawrence Janiak

Lawrence Janiak, Robert Stiegler

A collaborative film conceived as a ‘picture postcard,’ the moving images recorded by the camera mirroring the card’s picture side, the sound track evoking its written message. Life and Film is a lyrical look at some Chicago filmmakers on their way to the Michigan sand dunes.

Allegro

Lawrence Janiak

Handmade, direct animation film using rubber based masking material and colored dye. Rhthmic colored linear patterns of abstract grids move in syncopation to the allegro from the Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G Major by J.S. Back. Inspired by the handmade films of Norman McLaren, who once told Larry over milkshakes that Allegro was the best film he had seen made in 16mm.

Glasshouse

Lawrence Janiak

A documentary film of a large terrarium made out of wood and glass that Janiak built using handmade wood joints during the summer of 1959. The design was inspired by a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s home Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Animation Film Making: A Teaching Method at the Institute of Design 1968 to 1980

Chet Childs, Lawrence Janiak

Lawrence Janiak, Chet Childs

A short video documentary on Larry Janiak's time as an instructor at the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he taught undergraduate and graduate students for 12 years. Aaron Siskind hired Larry in 1968 to start an experimental live action and animated film area at the school. A narrator introduces Larry's career and achievements at the school and guides viewers through the animation filmmaking area. The film primarily features footage of a beginning animation course taught by Larry.

Adams Film

Lawrence Janiak

Adams Film is a visual collage combining live action footage with abstract images and textures drawn onto 16mm film stock. Footage of a casual Janiak family gathering is sandwiched between superimposed garden scenes and rebellious direct animation. The soundtrack consists of assorted tape loops.

Disintegration Line

Lawrence Janiak

A direct animation film featuring black and white full frame motion as opalescent as the dancing night sky. The abstract animation field textures subtly depict the infinitesimal nuclei of energy called Tanmatra, a moving field of aggregates of atoms and cosmic motion called the dance of Shiva. (Larry Janiak)

Homage #5

Lawrence Janiak

An unfinished film, or preliminary sketch, that pairs live action film with a recorded lecture on reincarnation by Baba Ram Dass, an American spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. The footage deliberately resembles outtakes, a lot like those accidental moments in life that can throw a new light on our understanding. An exercise of the non-literal relationship between image and sound.

Vedanta Temple Dedication Ceremony

Lawrence Janiak

This documentary film by Larry Janiak and Steve Rose records the day-long ceremonies during the dedication of the new Vivekananda Vedanta Society Temple in Chicago. Many Ramakrishna Order Swamis from other centers in the United States from India were in attendance for the special ceremonies. The "Homa" fire service and the "Arati" chanting worship service are included in the film. The soundtrack is Indian raga music and Vedic chanting.

Hale House

Lawrence Janiak

A documentary film about Hale House, a Chicago home where Swami Vivekananda lived while a speaker at the 1893 Parliament of Religions at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The film lingers on architectural details of the home while a soundtrack of Indian raga sitar music and Vedic chanting fills the air. The film was made by Larry for Swami Bhashyananda, the former head of the Vivekanandra Vedanta Society of Chicago.

Agamemnon in New York

Wayne Boyer, Lawrence Janiak

Lawrence Janiak

What started as a film test on new sync-sound film equipment quickly became a short film documenting the typical nuttiness behind the scenes at Goldsholl Design & Film Associates, a Chicago-based design firm that employed both Wayne Boyer and Larry Janiak. Janiak ad libs alone, as no one else would come out from the behind the camera. Shot by Boyer and edited by Janiak, a home movie.