Chip Lord

Motorist

Chip Lord

Richard Marcus, Jo Harvey Allen

While driving to Los Angeles a motorist reminisces about the formative influence of the automobile.

Awakening from the 20th Century

Chip Lord

Homer Flynn, John Sanborn

"Awakening from the 20th Century" contends with the collision between the actual and the virtual in the city of San Francisco. "Is life becoming virtual?" Lord asks. "Are we witnessing the end of the City? Will the computer replace the automobile?" These questions are taken up by six prominent writers, musicians, and multi-media workers, who describe their own shifting relationships to technology and public space within the city. Awakening from the 20th Century is structured around imagery from several San Francisco sites: the broadcast transmission tower Sutro Tower; "Critical Mass," an activist bicycle event; and locations from the Dashiel Hammet Walking Tour, which are interspersed with scenes from The Maltese Falcon.

Abscam (Framed)

Chip Lord

Abscam (Framed) frames the FBI sting operation known as "Abscam" by mixing FBI surveillance footage of Congressman Michael "Ozzie" Meyers with footage shot by Lord at the Motel where the original sting occurred—in the process, inserting the artist into this moment in history.

Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm

Laura Harrison, Beth Federici

Chip Lord, Doug Michels

"What we were trying to do was the ultimate form of architecture, which was predicting how society would use space, land and time." Curtis Schreier, ANT FARM Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm is the first film to consider the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm, best known for its iconic land-art piece Cadillac Ranch. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive multidisciplinary work that questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. Incorporating breathtaking archival video, new footage shot over ten years and animation based on zany period sketches, this film is about the joy of creation in a time when there were no limits. —Beth Federici

The Sea Rach: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism

Peter Samis

Joe Bodovitz, Obie Bowman

On a ten-mile stretch of the Northern California coast lies the site of a radical architectural experiment. Learn the story behind The Sea Ranch, a place where environment informs geometry and buildings embody ideals.

Easy Living

Chip Lord, Mickey McGowan

Easy Living never is in Chip Lord’s horrifically serene look at suburbia, using miniature toys to create a landscape of false tranquility

The Aroma of Enchantment

Chip Lord

Chip Lord

In this engaging video essay, Lord explores the Japanese fascination with 1950's American pop culture. The Aroma of Enchantment pointedly notes how America represented the 'abundance of democracy' for a country decimated by war. Unable to revise or reject these anachronistic images, Japan is ironically stuck with empty Elvis in a time of plenty.