Larry Jordan
Illustration — Larry Jordan in 2025 Lawrence Jordan (born 1934) is an American independent filmmaker who is most widely known for his animated collage films. He was a founding member of the Canyon Cinema Cooperative and the Camera Obscura Film Society, and was also a music video director.
Also recorded as Lawrence Jordan
Larry Jordan

hinnk · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1934 · Denver.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- animator · film director · film producer
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
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Illustration — Larry Jordan in 2025 Lawrence Jordan (born 1934) is an American independent filmmaker who is most widely known for his animated collage films. He was a founding member of the Canyon Cinema Cooperative and the Camera Obscura Film Society, and was also a music video director.
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Note VALÉORINE
Larry Jordan (born 1934) is an American animator, film director and film producer. The animator was born in Denver.
Works by Larry Jordan are held at Harvard Film Archive. The animator received Guggenheim Fellowship.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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In this article
Biography
Biography
Jordan was born in 1934 in Denver, Colorado. He attended South High School with Stan Brakhage. He attended Harvard University from 1951 to 1953, where he was active in the film society. Jordan moved to Central City, where he put on plays with friends from high school. Both he and Brakhage began making films during this period, with Jordan appearing in Brakhage's Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection and Desistfilm and Brakhage appearing in Jordan's The One Romantic Venture of Edward and Trumpit. While the two were in New York, Jordan met artist Joseph Cornell at his show at the Stable Gallery. He described Cornell's work as "like an anchor" for him, aligning with his own "sensibility of delicate magic". In 1955, Jordan settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. He appeared as Faust in Robert Duncan's play Faust Foutu, and Jess introduced him to collage novels by Max Ernst, which became a major influence on his filmmaking. He taught Bruce Conner how to edit films, and in 1957 the two founded the Camera Obscura Film Society, which was active until 1962. Jordan made several voyages as a Merchant Marine during this period. During the 1960s, Jordan was one of the founding members of the Canyon Cinema Cooperative. He was inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead when creating his 1969 film Our Lady of the Sphere, now one of his best-known works. In 1970 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to make Sacred Art of Tibet. In 2008 Facets Multi-Media released the Lawrence Jordan Album, a DVD collection with 25 of his films. The Camera Obscura Film Society was re-established in 2015, and Jordan's films are screened as part of its annual report in Petaluma, California.
Filmography
Filmography
• Man Is in Pain (1954) • Undertow (1955) • The One Romantic Adventure of Edward (1956) • Three (1956) • Trumpit (1956) with Stan Brakhage • Waterlight (1957) • Spectre Mystagogic (1957) • Triptych in Four Parts (1958) • Minerva Looks Out into the Zodiac (1959) • Hymn in Praise of the Sun (1960) • The Season's Change (1960) • The Soccer Game (1960) • The 40 and 1 Nights (or Jess's Didactic Nickelodeon) (1961) • Pink Swine (1963) • Portrait of Sharon (1963) • Rodia-Estudiantina (1963) • Duo Concertantes (1964) • Ein Traum Der Liebenden (1964) • Jewel Face (1964) • Johnnie (1964) • The Dream Merchant (1965) • Gymnopédies (1965) • Hamfat Asar (1965) • Big Sur: The Ladies (1966) • The Old House Passing (1967) • Hildur and the Magician (1969) • Our Lady of the Sphere (1969) • Sacred Art of Tibet (1972) • Orb (1973) • Once Upon a Time (1974) • The Apparition (1976) • Cut-Out Animation: Larry Jordan (1977) • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1977) • Ancestors (1978) • Cornell, 1965 (1978) • Visions of a City (1978) • Moonlight Sonata (1979) • Finds of the Fortenight (1980) • Carabosse (1980) • Adagio (1981) • Masquerade (1981) • In a Summer Garden (Part 2) (1983) • The Grove (1983) • Winter Light (1983) • Sophie's Place (1986) • The Visible Compendium (1991) • The Black Oud (1992) • Star of Day (1994) • Postcard from San Miguel (1996) • Chateau/Poyet (2004) • Enid's Idyll (2004) • Poet's Dream (2005) • Blue Skies Beyond the Looking Glass (2006) • Silent Sonatas (2007) • The Miracle of the Don Cristobal (2008) • Circus Savage (2009) • Beyond Enchantment (2010) • Cosmic Alchemy (2010) • Moments of Illumination (2010) • Solar Sight (2011) • Solar Sight II (2012) • Solar Sight III (2013) • After the Circus (2013) • Entr'acte (2013) • Driving Demons (2014) • Inferno (2014) • The Apoplectic Walrus (2015) • Entr'acte II (2015) • Night Light (2016) • Entr'acte III (2017) • Time Travel (2017) • Delirium (2018) • Oz (2019) • The Ogre's Garden (2019) • Alchemy (2021) • Belle du Jour (2021) • Harper's Bazar (2022) • Reve d'Or (2023) • Fairytale (2023) • The Egg (2024) • Hommage (2024) • Dreamscape I (2025)

Larry Jordan at a Q A at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, United States
hinnk

Larry Jordan at a Q A at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, United States
hinnk
Legacy
Our Lady of the Sphere was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2010.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.LAWRENCE JORDAN: Prodigies of Physical Phenomena - K. Imperial Fine Art
- 2.Avant-garde Filmmaker Lawrence Jordan on the Magic of Film, Joseph Cornell, and San Francisco's Art Scene-Flicker Alley.
- 3.Leger, Jackie. Larry Jordan. Animation World Network.
- 4.Sitney, P. Adams. Moments of Illumination: The Films of Lawrence Jordan. Artforum. April 2009.
- 5.Elder, R. Bruce. DADA, Surrealism, and the Cinematic Effect. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 435. 2013.
- 6.John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Larry Jordan.
- 7.Kurnick, Chelsea. Camera Obscura: Hotel Petaluma becomes a haven for movie-loving misfits. North Bay Bohemian. November 29, 2022.
- 8.SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER
- 9.Hollywood Blockbusters, Independent Films and Shorts Selected for 2010 National Film Registry|Library of Congress
- 10.Canyon Cinema. Lawrence Jordan.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 September 2026.
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