Vibrant, bursting with color (shot in the late, and much lamented Kodachrome) and ringing with bells and whistles, Wayne Sourbeer’s ode to the joys of the lowly pinball machine is a visual feast; Colored balls whiz, clink, and crash across the laminated landscapes. Dim bulbs illuminate the gaudy caricatures that stare back at the player. Neon lights flash in streaks of hot pink, red, and blue.
An experimental film by Wayne Sourbeer from 1962.
Wayne Sourbeer deftly combines visual forms, the original poetry of Kansas-born poet Charles Plymell and an original music score by David Levinson, who was at the time, associate conductor of the Wichita Symphony. Montage II: Ephemeral Blue is the quintessential example of what continental film critics have called “non-verbal communication.” Sourbeer’s images are the foundation for Plymell’s verbal abstractions and Levinson’s brilliant musical score.
The small town of Lucas, Kansas, is home to one of America’s most unique triumphs of self-expression: S. P. Dinsmoor’s fantastical backyard concrete and wood rendering of the Garden of Eden. Dinsmoor’s self-constructed and wildly imaginative figures represent one man’s attempt to make sense of the world in which he lived. A Civil War veteran, farmer, and self-taught artist, Dinsmoor created a work perhaps more relevant today than ever before; witness Dinsmoor’s Labor Crucified surrounded by a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Preacher, and a Banker to know that this garden is still thriving today. Adding to Dinsmoor’s triumph is the collective work of Montage Production’s Richard Grove, Richard J. Meyer, and Wayne Sourbeer, a trio of avant-garde filmmakers who simply and effectively captured the power of Dinsmoor’s architectural sculptures under the blue-gray skies of southeastern Kansas and further emboldens them using Dinsmoor’s own words.
The relationship between forms in nature and their interpretation in art is explored in independent avant-garde filmmaker Wayne Sourbeer’s gentle and thoughtful film. Sourbeer follows abstract impressionist painter Corban LePell as he creates one painting, neatly juxtaposing LePell’s various processes with the images in nature that influence him. An original score by Marvin Granostaff completes the circle.
