Free Radicals (1958)

In this powerful abstract film with a soundtrack of African drum music, Lye scratched "white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches" on to black leather, using a variety of tools from saw teeth to arrow heads. The first version of the film won a major award at the International Experimental Film Festival Held in Brussels in 1958 in association with the World's Fair. Stan Brakhage described the film as "an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece".

Released

1958-04-23

Genres

Animation, Music

Runtime

5 min

Status

Released

Directed / written by

Len Lye

TMDB rating

6.0/10 from 72 votes