Len Lye, film still from Colour Flight, 1938. Image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the New Zealand Film Archive
Early Films
Beginning in the 1930s, Len Lye made films without a camera, applying hand-painted imagery directly to the film strip. Combining these vibrant abstractions with rhythmic Cuban jazz, works such as A Colour Box (1935) and Rainbow Dance (1936) have become touchstones for the medium of film as an artistic expression.
