In Search of the Numinous: THE MYTHOLOGICAL FILMS OF LESLEY KEEN

The Philosophical Research Society is very proud to present – for the first ever West Coast program of her mindblowing and stunningly transcendent animated films of acclaimed Scottish filmmaker Lesley Keen! For this very special evening, PRS will present Keen's trilogy of creation myth films: the short films ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE (1984) and INVOCATION: AN ANCIENT GREEK CREATION MYTH (1984), and her feature-length magnum opus RA: THE PATH OF THE SUN GOD (1990).

In the early 1980s – after training in Prague and founding Persistent Vision, then Scotland’s only animation studio – Keen’s passion for animation merged with her interests in psychology, comparative religion, and quantum mechanics. What resulted was a series of jawdroppingly dazzling films exploring creation mythology which employed hand drawn animation and optical special effects to create hypnotic, Jungian explorations of symbolism and archetypes. Keen’s remarkable films transport the viewer to an ethereal realm all of their own, capturing something truly ineffable and eternal through her extraordinarily striking visual language – made all the more transportive by their amazing, experimental electronics infused soundtracks.

Inspired by Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE is a retelling of the tragically romantic myth in the style of a Greek vase. Masterfully rendered in the style of Ancient Grecian art, the entire tale plays as though its hero were traversing a continually rotating vase, as Keen explores the myth’s archetypal message of Art as a means to overcome the forces of death. The profoundly psychedelic INVOCATION depicts the Ancient Greek myth of the world’s creation through hallucinatory, continuously morphing symbolism.

Four years in the making, RA is a dreamlike invocation of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the Creation and Man’s place within it. RA is a film that defies categorization. The use of symbols to recreate the mental and spiritual world of the ancient Egyptians transports the viewer to a zone which has more in common with Jung than popular representations of ancient Egypt. Told in three chapters (DAWN: The Creation, NOON: The Year of the King, and NIGHT: THE GATES OF THE UNDERWORLD), RA is uncompromisingly Egyptian in structure, dispelling the concept of linear time in favor of an eternal present, in a universe where Gods and Man are held in a timeless interconnected cycle of birth and rebirth. Its vibrant animation, shot on 35mm and combining traditional hand drawn animation with special effects, is an utterly mesmerizing sight to behold.

You won’t want to miss this very special evening and a chance to experience these miraculous, mythic films on the big screen with their talented creator in person!

ABOUT LESLEY KEEN

Lesley Keen is a Scottish filmmaker whose creative method combines traditional hand-drawn animation with computer-assisted techniques. Her works use the moving image to explore abstract concepts and non-narrative structures on themes drawn from fine art, mythology and cosmology.

After graduating in graphic design from the Glasgow School of Art, Lesley gained her classic animation training working at the Brothers-in-Tricks studios in Prague. In the 1980s she established the small studio Persistent Vision to produce a series of author animated films for UK broadcaster Channel 4. The works included Talking a Line for a Walk, based on the visual style and conceptual notebooks of Paul Klee, and Orpheus and Eurydice, a retelling of the Greek myth in the style of a classic vase, which was shown in competition at Cannes Film Festival in 1984. This series of commissions culminated in the 3-part feature-length film Ra; the Path of the Sun God, based on themes from Ancient Egyptian mythology.

Program includes:

• Orpheus and Eurydice, 1984, 6 mins
• Invocation: An Ancient Greek Creation Myth, 1984, 5 mins
• Ra: The Path of the Sun God, 1990, 72 mins

Special thanks to The Austin Film Society and programmer Jazmyne Moreno, whose interview with Keen informed these program notes.

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