Les Blank Movies

A film created by Les Blank and Maureen Gosling from footage that was cut from the documentary "Always for Pleasure" (1978) about Mardi Gras in New...

Oakland bluesman Sonny Rhodes sings “Cigarette Blues”: a musical warning that compares cigarette smoking with playing with a loaded gun.

A lyrical journey through the heart of Chicano culture as reflected in the love songs of the Tex-Mex Norteña music tradition. Performers...

An obsessively-made documentary, filmed over 16 years, exploring the creative life and adventures of the eccentric artist and entrepreneur Harrod...

80-year-old Julie Lyon, sister of Old Time fiddler Tommy Jarrell, lights up this gem of a film as she spins tales of her Appalachian childhood in...

This little-known Blank gem is a portrait of the Serbian-American communities of Chicago and California, highlighting their history in this country,...

Lightnin' Hopkins sings about playing cards with Les Blank and Skip Gerson - a card game he won which turned critical to the making of the film "The...

This creative educational film by Pieter Van Deusen features a variety of string instruments performed by noted musicians such as Shamim Ahmed Kahn....

In a mountain village in southwestern China, just south of Tibet, one of the last remaining traditional bearers of the Lisu ethnic group is amid the...

Les Blank's first student film, made while at USC, starring Gail Blank, Pieter Van Deusen and Les himself. This short pays homage to Ingmar Bergman's...

One of Les Blank's student films: a horror film following a young couple.

This short film by Les Blank with Skip Gerson features the charismatic legendary blues icon Lightnin' Hopkins sing a beautiful song about a...

One of Les Blank's industrial films, which follows a Holly Farms "broiler" chicken from factory incubation to the county fair barbecue pit. A...

Home video footage shot by Maureen Gosling during the filming of Les Blank's feature "A Poem is a Naked Person".

This aloha-filled portrait of Auntie Irmgard Farden Aluli, one of Hawaii's best loved composers, gently focuses on Hawai'ian women's contributions to...

Conjoined fables are told, one Japanese, the other African, a ghost story colliding with farcical folklore.

This film, photographed and edited by Les Blank, produced and directed by Pieter Van Deusen, documents a spontaneously improvised concert by musician...

This short film features Les Blank (in a rare acting role) and Getachew Abbai. Directed by David Lawrence. This was a student film made at the USC...

From Worldcat: Presents new musical sounds and new ways of treating old sounds. Includes examples of chance music, tape music, synthesizer music, and...

The Ways of Water was made with the Earth Science Curriculum Project and the Environmental Studies Project of the American Geological Institute. A...