A CLOWN .-----Outside the Circus------.

ous close-up faces dissolve one into the by Lois Siegel other). A politician can promise them anything, and they will not remember o most people will al- , later what he has promised." ways be an enigma. He was unique. The film is fllied with contradictions: THis idiosyncracies bred myths,. and (stuttering voice) " ... and the game is re­ these myths were so strong that they. ally nice to look at..." (we see a collage pass on, like fairy-tales. of wrestling photos picturing grimacing During the last week of April, 1986, faces and hefty men tugging and pulling Arthur Lipsett ended his life, two weeks at each other in agony). A bomb before his birthday. He would have explodes: "Everyone wonders what the been 50 on May 13. future will behold." This is intercut with people having fun and smiling: smiling A Glimpse of Lipsett mouths, smiling eyes ... then another He loved simple things: chocolate-co­ shot of the bomb... (man's voice) "This vered M&M peanuts; National Lam­ is my line, and I love it." Later we see poon's film Vacation, and his own, orig­ shots of newspapers: "There's sort of a inal spaghetti sauce which he garnished passing interest in things." (followed by with pickles and olives. c: a shot of a pastry-shop window and a He discovered the power of mm at a ~ cake in the shape of a smiling cat). "But young age and set about creating high­ {l there's no real concern." "People seem () voltage collages. A sculptor, his mater­ ill unwilling to become involved in any' ials were down-to-earth, everyday .~ thing ... " (more collage photos of faces : a people. His messages were challenges ~ \ Santa Claus, pause, a shoot of a dead to our beliefs, practices and values. ~ : man on the street) "I mean really in- He saw a discrepancy between what 6- volved." we say and what we do; that somehow ~ "Almost everybody has a washing the connection was missing. He also . ~ machine, a drying machine." "I would questioned why people do what they ~ say that's really a dangerous thing, if the do; for example, in 21-87 a man on a ~ only thing you can think of to express ..______.. 0. your individuality is an orange planta- horse is shot out of a cannon, and in , a young tion in BraziL" girl rides atop a balloon high in the sky, Arthur Harold Lipsett Lipsett questioned middle-class while a waiter serves a meal among the values. He felt victimized by them. He open girders of a sh.. ysc raper under con­ puzzled over people's obsessions with struction. People are curious beings. Born: May 13,1936 objects. His films view life as a living So Lipsett collected images portray­ hell. ing the bizarre relationship between the Died: April, 1986 U.S. Air Force planes pile up in a human organism and the environment. waste heap ... we hear a bongo roll, "And His explorations baffled some, stunned Low, who first hired Lipsett, describes 550000. The technique was different they say the situation is getting worse," others. But one thing was sure. He had him as a "lively, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed because Lipsett was putting pictures to followed by laughter. More planes ap­ , something important to say to us all - if kid. He had a knack for randomly glean­ sound. The soundtrack came first: an as­ pear. Finally, we hear applause, then we would only listen. ing what interested him." sembly of disparate voices spliced to­ "Bravo, Very Nice, Very Nice." He discovered film by working on gether. Other people worked the other '.' Whether he was ahead, behind or • shon clips in the Animation Depart­ way around, taCking sound omo images; out of his time is irrelevant. He was just ment. He made bloopy cartoon films for only animators started w ith the sound­ a very good artist," says filmmaker Lipsett was a filmmaker, philosopher sponsors in Onawa, spots for TV, illus­ track. Derek May. and eccentric. He grew up on Hingston trations to be used as inserts for live-ac­ Very Nice, Very Nice was nomi­ At the Board, Lipsett completed five Street in the west of . At 21 , £ion mms - what was known as "service nated for an Academy Award in 1961. more films, each on the theme, vari' fresh from the Museum of Fine Arts work." Lipsen was 25 years-old. ati on or development of his fascination School, he was "adopted " after a fashion Lipsett began collecting bits and Very Nice, Very Nice has a sober, with the connection between sounds by The National Film Board, where pieces of "outs" or fUm discarded by sombre, quality to it. It speaks of the in­ and images and the people who create most of his creative years were spent. other fllmmakers, unearthing these difference of humankind. At one point a them. His producers included Tom Early in lipsett's film career, his life scraps in editing bins and garbage cans. man's voice states: Daly, , Don Brittain and Guy seemed exhuberant. Producer Colin Working late at night, he meshed these "People who have made no attempt Glover, who served as his defenders, odd shapes and sounds together to to educate themselves live in a kind of since Lipsett was never very good at Filmm.aker Lois Siegel was working on create his greatest fllm , Very Nice, dissolving phantasmagoria of the world, supporting himself. a film. about Arthur Lipsett when he Very Nice, The film was composed al­ that is, they completely forget what explains: "In the early '60s died. most entirely of stills and cost about happened last Tuesday (A series of vari- experimemal film was an essential part

10/Cinema Canada - October 1986 p , • E x E R I M E N A L •

of the National Film Board. As a pro­ over 200 prints, which was a good sel­ the NFB, so was financially all right for ducer, I was more an editor of ideas ler in those days. The film was sup­ a while. The Canada Council asked him rather than an inventor. I had a flair for ported internally by Tom Daly, who was to be on a jury. It was the only spinoff recognizing creativity in others. My re­ a real strength to Arthur," Gordon Mar­ from his film career he ever agreed to. lationship with Arthur was an arms­ tin adds. "But some people at the Board He wanted to make collages and stay length relationship. He had a special couldn't understand what Lipsett was . away from film for a while. bent for unused sound tracks of the doing, and they felt threatened." Even­ In the fall 1972, he applied for a world. He especially savoured funny tually Tom Daly too came under Canada Council grant from the Visual and odd events; for example, a narrator bureaucratic pressure. Arts Section to do collages and murals. ( (Stanley Jackson) making mistakes and "If you look back now, historically he Ironically, after having been a jury . ~ laughing while being recorded. Initially was really anticipating the world of member, he didn't get the grant. He had Arthur's films weren't a problem be­ moving images we know today, where no previous record as a 'visual artist,' cause his films weren't expensive." we can flip back and forth on the TV be­ and it was difficult to switch disciplines. Lipsett was aware of the experimen­ tween 30- channels," Martin explains. Then he made a film called Strange tal films being made in the 1950's. "Guy "Arthur was using film in basic linear Codes, which was shot by his friend Viau, whose films became the start of form and was still creating multiple im­ Henry Zemel. "I tried to get the NFB to ~ the Cinematheque, had a fantastic per­ agery. His images and sounds would distribute it," says Mark Slade, "which ii sonal collection. We used to go over create after-images which would carry didn't happen. There are film scholars::J c and see films by Maya Deren, Bruce over as bridges to other sequences." who would like to see an artist's work in .~ Connor, Kenneth Anger," recalls Judith "Arthur was not appreciated by the block, and this film would inter est~ Sandiford, Arthur's girlfriend for 11 people who had the power to give op­ them." o years. "Arthur especially liked Anger's portunities to make another film ," Mark Lipsett's world shifted. 2 , Inauguration of the Pleasure Slade adds. "They would no longer give "He insisted that everything had a CL .... --~~~-~------,­ Dome." him a budget unless he would make his sound or a force field," explains San- Lipsett's friends were concerned Many have called Lipsett a genius, but films differently. But Lipsett was a film diford. "He had that kind of intensified when his life began to disintegrate. To­ genius too is human. As he moved more poet. Rather than make mediocre films, perception of things. I didn't know any- ronto filmmaker Martin Lavut remem­ and more into his films, the messages he accepted a job editing travel films. one who paid that much attention to bers coming home and discovering him seemed to become more obscure to the "I remember one of his jobs required the world. It was this intense capacity sitting on the floor surrounded by all outside world. Distributors labeled his that he edit the flies and bugs out of a for observation that later became un­ the electrical appliances in the house, films "difficult." Management at the film for Northern Affairs," Slade con­ bearable for Arthur. He bought industri­ plugged in. "The TV was turned to sta­ Board decided Lipsett could continue tinues. "They didn't want bugs to ap­ al ear-protectors because he couldn't tic, and Arthur was encircled by the to make films only if under firm control, pear in the film. They knew people bear hearing things. He was just too toaster, the blender, and the electric but Lipsett was not under the control of weren't attracted to black flies. For sensitive. At first he got them because of shaver and he was talking to them. This · anyone. A producer could only act as a months Arthur literally had to edit out noisy neighbors, then he began to wear was his first breakdown: in Toronto in protector. the flies that appeared in the image. them all the time. Inanimate objects had 1973. I took him to the Clarke, a psychi­ "Even Very Nice, Very Nice was not "There seemed to be only room for symbolic importance for him. His films atric institution. He didn't object. He well-accepted," explains Gordon Martin one person like Norman McLaren at the made you see things you didn't see knew something was wrong. He had who was in charge of the Board's Screen Board. If you don't get cultural informa­ otherwise. begun to hear voices. The doctors gave Study program in film education. tion of your work for a long time, even­ "When I first met Arthur in 1962 I him pills to calm his nerves. Arthur had "Educators were asking 'what is it tually you lose confidence in yourself." was between my third and fourth years a very low tolerance to drugs. He about?' We tried to get them to react to The actual making of films gradually at McGill University studying psychol­ couldn't even take aspirin. If he smoked it as an experience; that is, how did it became less possible for Lipsett at the ogy. Arthur's version of the world was a a jOint, he'd be high for two days. Drugs feel? People only changed their at­ Film Board. He withdrew into his own lot more exciting than school." flipped him out. They served as the trig­ titudes' when it was nominated for an private life where he seemed to be "He was just moving to Coronet ger." Academy Award." walking around in his films. Street near St. Joseph's Oratory. I In 1975, Lipsett went to "Generally people in NFB Distribu­ He often appeared with his Leica on helped him unpack. I found it rather un­ where he filmed Blue and Orange tion thought the film was rubbish," re­ Montreal streets. By this point, no-one usual that he had packed his unwashed with Tanya Tree. The mm remains in­ calls Mark Slade, who had just come to was sure whether he even had film in dishes when he moved. complete. NFB distribution at that time and is now his camera. Arthur Lipsett had begun to "When I met him he dressed beauti­ retired. "I viewed the film as the light die. And no one seemed strong enough fully. He bought everything in New on the horizon. I was very excited by it. to turn him around. York. .. boots, handwoven ties. Gradually "The government doesn't sponsor "Unlike Norman McLaren, who re­ clothes became ingredients in the people to do creative work," Slade con­ searched before making a film with for­ world of rules. He couldn't wear certain tinues. "They want to keep the lid on to mal, structural, organiC laws, Arthur ex­ things and had to wear others. He confirm the agency's mandate. Arthur perimented in the making of his films," started dressing more eccentrically; for wanted questioning. No government in says Daly. "His later films seemed less example, he'd wear three or four flannel the world will permit that. No one effectively formed and seemed to wan­ shirts on top of each other. would have given William Blake a der more. After a while, his films "By the spring of 1973, Arthur began Canada Council Grant." seemed to be covering much the same having hallucinations. He wouldn't Lipsett's success with Very Nice, ground over and over again." sleep much. He was getting very rest­ Very Nice gave him 'carte blanche' for "Eventually, a gap ensued between less and smoking a lot of dope. Arthur's a while, but as his films became less ac­ his personal vision and where he met first reaction to drugs years before had ceSSible, NFB management became the audience. This was precarious ter­ been that he didn't need them - his wary. Lipsett's career began to flounder. ritory," explains Derek May. When he mind was already far out enough. Now "I checked Arthur's films between had outgrown his stay at tre Film Board, he started hanging around other people 1967 and 1968 and 1000 prints were in Arthur left for a three-month "sabbati­ who smoked. distribution," says Slade. "Fluxes was cal" to England, accompanied by Judith "He complained that the ceiling was held by distribution for over a year be­ Sandiford. the wrong color, so we painted it. One fore it was allowed out in public. I saw "He was very angry at the Film Board day he began sawing a beautiful oak a memo from Jeannine Hopfinger to by 1970," she explains. At first our trip chair and packing it away. These Will Jobbins, Director of Distribution, was fine, then Arthur began to have weren't things 1 could take care of any- ~ which said the only prints out were the anxiety attacks. It was the time of the more. 1 made an appOintment with a ~ ones I had given out to people. None of c October crisis in Montreal so we went psychiatrist for advice. '1 think you're ~ it was true. This is the strategy they to Toronto instead of ;eturning to on their side,' Arthur accused. I had to -:: used." Montreal." leave. 1 couldn't handle the situation "By 1970 Very Nice had sold well ~ Lipsett had his severance pay from anymore." -§. • E x p E R I M E N T A L •

He returned to Toronto and then, in 1977, frustrated by some inCident, he took a taxi from Toronto to Montreal which cost him 8250 to 8300, accord­ ing to Zemel. How to deal w ith raising money to make fil ms became a real barrier. At the NFB , he had been somewhat protected. Now the outside world was less sensi­ tive to his needs. Lipsett began to close down.

An Intimate Stranger The problem with compiling a story about Arthur Lipsett is that one has to invent the subject as a coherent whole to bring together in one place a variety of refl ections. When the subject is Ar­ thur Lipsett, this is not a simple matter. Lipsett's life was a puzzle, very much like his films. He dealt with people in the same way as he made films - he jux­ taposed them. Each person in his life seemed to know him at a different period: pre-Film Board, Film Board, post-Film Board. Sometimes his best friends didn't even know each other. To the people who knew him, even minimally. Arthur Lipsett was someone they would never forget. There was something so strong about encounters with him, even brief ones. He always left a bit of his personality behind. Although it is readily recognized that Lipsett had something special about him, the broader question remains: how to encourage talent and imagination without destroying the individual, and this in North America w here there's such an insistence that the artist pro­ duce something' Lipsett was like a shaman or a philosopher. Perhaps in a different cul­ ture, he would have been more readily accepted, although his filmmaking did strongly influence other people's film styles. To some he was like an con - one of a Idnd. " .. .There is a generation of young people w hose own survival is linked with the survival of Arthur Lipsett," Mark Slade w rote in 1968 in an article

~~~~~~~=--~~~~~~~~~-~~~~~~~ Anxentitioleuds, " WArillthuriam LiBplsakeett : othf e MHoydpeernr- l Cinema." "The tragedy is that Arthur Lipsett couldn't fi nd the environment that could appreciate him," explains film­ maker Tanya Tree. "He couldn't cope with bureaucracy. " "One never knows how to deal with other people's pain except perhaps to be too brisk or rough," Colin Low adds. "I was dismayed by the darkness of his fil ms. We once had an argument at the moviola. 'The world can't be that miser­ able,' I pleaded. His films were fascinat­ ing to look at but needed structure. "He showed me the · rushes of a later film, and I though it was incredibly self­ indulgent, and I told him that. There were scenes of people high, on pot or something, staggering around an apart- .' ment.- I just didn't understand. I got % very upset, and I said 'Arthur, the Film f.. Board ought to fire you because that's

(For Arthur Lipsett's filmography, see p. 83) • E x p E R I M E N T A L •

dumb stuff.' I think it wounded him the same time. badly, and there were people iil distri· When he photographed people, he'd bution and directors of production sit· just walk into, say, a barber shop on St. ting there, and no one was saying any· Lawrence Boulevard and start shooting thing. That was his status at the time. stills of someone having his hair cut. "I believe he was lionized too early. At parties, he'd often wait until late at Arthur couldn't handle his instant· night to take pictures - when people celebrity status. He had fallen into a were in compromising positions. Not stupid syndrome where you think you everyone appreciated this. He loved to have to make a film that gets even more take advantage of situations. attention. His work should have rna· After his Academy Award nomina' tured more slowly. As time went on, he tion, he received a letter from British became more frantic." filmmaker . The type· written letter said, "I'm interested in Reminiscences from a Visual Sea having a trailer done for Dr. Arthur lipsett'S personality was consis· Strangelove." Kubrick regarded Lip· tently unpredictable, and this capacity sett's work as a landmark in cinema - a to look at the world in a different way breakthrough. He was interested in in· always intrigued those who knew him. volving Lipsett. This didn't happen, but He has been described as a strange the actual trailer did reflect Lipsett's creature who loped down the corridors style in Very Nice, Very Nice. of the NFB with the right shoulder hug· When Derek Lamb was director of ging the wall as he moved, following the animation at the NFB, he once pre· indentations of doorways or other vari· sented a series of NFB fIlms in Califor· ations in otherwise straight surfaces. His nia. () later head was always turned to the side, avo ~ came up and inquired, "How's Arthur erting his gaze from the world. * Lipsett? He's a very important guy." Ap· "He talked with humor. Everything (/) parently 21-87 was a big influence on had another meaning for him. He took :3 Lucas' class at U.S.c. little at face value," says Derek May. ~ At another pOint, Lipsett was invited L:. to Harvard as a resident artist - under Lipsett worked at night - removed 0. from everyday activities. Because other any conditions. Lipsett's response was filmmakers would often borrow his that he would think about it. He fol· equipment during the day, and he had lowed this with a letter: "I cannot come trouble keeping track of it, he obtained were shown to management. They were to see what I looked like with a couple to Harvard at this time in history, signed a 30·foot chain to which he secured ev· light· years removed from what Arthur of bullet holes in me, like Swiss cheese. Arthur." erything in Sight. Like a snake, he would wanted to do. After Arthur came back He had such curiosity." Another story has fIlmmaker Bob Ver· wind it through his moviola to the from the West Coast, he suggested that Although he was very aware of the ral and Arthur Lipsett travelling to the splicer, through a pair of scissors, he, Derek May, and I produce musicals violence around him, Lipsett was not an U.S. in an NFB stationwagon. They had around the room, anchoring everything ala MGM. I knew that was the end." outwardly violent man. His destructive been sent to pick up a series of large in Sight. Then the serpent was clamped For years Lipsett lived in the dreary feelings were turned inward. He was an drawings by cartoonist Robert Osborne tight by a huge padlock. "It looked like Clifton Apartments, on Cote· des· extremely private person, who almost for a graphic sequence in an NFB film. a medieval torture chamber," says Don Neiges, overlooking the mountain in never talked about his past. Osborne didn't trust the mail for fear of Brittain. Montreal. The size of his room was no His mother was a Russian Jew from damage to the drawings. It is rumored that when Lipsett left bigger than an closet. Animator Derek Kiev. When he was 10, Arthur watched On the way to their hotel in Connec· the NFB, he refused to relinquish the Lamb describes it: "Storyboards co· her commit suicide. His father was a ticut, they ran out of gas and then combination to the lock, and Joe Plante, vered the walls, masking every inch. chemist. He had one sister, Marian. And locked the keys in the car. They were who was in charge of maintaining cut· The Clifton was like living at the YMCA that was the most that his friends knew. stranded on a remote road miles from ting·room equipment, had to be sum· without the amenities. Arthur had a bed There was a playful, but devilish, si<;le the hotel, and Lipsett, according to Ver· moned to untangle the labyrinth. Vari· and a cooker ring. He'd come to my to Arthur Lipsett. He was fascinated ral, thoroughly enjoyed every moment. ous people kept links of the chain as house all the time and would stay late with lines, such as "Mary Bartlett's Pear The car was finally rescued by a local souvenirs. Mark Slade still has his on a into the evening. Eventually I would Salad" or he would say things like "It'll dealer's master key. The draWings were shelf in his Vancouver home. have to throw him out." be great when they put the roof on. .." secured and they started on their return Before working Lipsett would stuff "It was a wallpaper of notes, like an He would pop into an other film· journey. paper into the air· vent in his editing altar more than an office," recounts maker's offices and flash an object, and In Plattsburg, they made a brief w ash· room to muffle the sounds. Ifhe worked Derek May. then challenge the individual to guess room stop. "While I was washing my in someone else's room, he would hide Lipsett would buy a book or how many frames the flash represented. hands, I was stopped by FBI agents." the splicer before leaving. Often it took magaZine and tear out the pages to Or he'd appear with a film can filled Verral recounts. "Lipsett hooted and days to find. make his storyboards, which were fan· with tighly rolled bits of film and say, hollered. We both were arrested on the Lipsett's methods of working were tastic works in themselves, some as big "Have one, they're delicious." spot for suspicious behavior. even more bizarre. For A Trip Down as 4 feet by 2 feet. In this way, his films At a family· style picnic with friends, "Arthur couldn't take it seriously, Memory Lane, he went to New York to would develop, but the images in his he once organized a demonstration for which made the FBI guys furious. His obtain stock footage in 35mm which he storyboards would not necessarily ap' kids. The parents were talking, ignoring kooky, Beatnik-like appearance proba· had reduced to 16mm, then he drew pear in his films. They were merely im· the kids. Lipsett grouped them together bly added to the situation. Arthur said, new edge numbers on it by hand. Fi· ages he was interested in. "He even and induced them to demonstrate, tot, 'They think we're Communist spies' and nally, he had it blown up to 35mm for stuck notes to the dashboard of his ing placards saying "We want to play left, which didn't help. 'We're here o n release. black Beetle," Martin Lavut remembers. Tag," or "Let's play Tug·O·War." Lipsett government business,' I pleaded. Finally There was no way Arthur Lipsett was "I once spent a weekend in the coun· stood on the sidelines, watching. The the agents went out to the station· going to be turned into a conventional try with Arthur, 80 miles north of demonstration was a success. The par· wagon, checked our references and let item. "He could be marvelously evasive; . Montreal, near Morin Heights," Derek ents were won over. us go. he wouldn't be trapped," states Colin Lamb relates. "Someone decided we At other times he would amuse him· "Arthur was in high spirits the w hole Low. should go hunting, and they gave him a self on his radio, jumping stations, time. He enjoyed the insanity of being "I felt what he was doing was terribly shot· gun. He was such an unpredictable switching from station· to· station. He temporarily arrested." important," explains Don Brittain, pro· person, I was terrified. He chainsmoked got tremendous delight from juxtapos· ducer of A Trip Down Memory Lane. cigarettes and waved this shot· gun. I ing one sound to another or tuning be· Arthur's Secret Museum "But there was pressure when his films thought to myself that he might just like tween stations to hear two stations at Lipsett was a prolific writer. He filled

October 1986 - Cinema Canada/13 • E x p E R I M E N , A L •

hundreds of notebooks of all kinds and It was as if he, himself, were from menting life on film, perhaps he felt he was most involved when he was making sizes. He loved those small, 29 cent, another planet looking at us all - as he had said what he had to say. And only films. When this phase of his life ended, dime-store notebooks. Then there were did in his films. He was very smart and one question remained: w hy should life he didn't have anything to give him the bolted-down accountant's ledgers knew how society worked." go on? pleasure. "Humans don't do weB with­ or the small, black school notebooks "The quantity of films one makes is His final act may have been, as Tanya out that," Tanya Tree says. which listed the contents of his films, not important. What is essential is the Tree surmises, "a kindness on his behalf "Something is lacking in the group one page per shot. The pages could be historical context and the artistic qual­ to get himself out of the way. It was energy of our community that would moved forward and backwards, similar ity. lipsett'S films were daring and painful for us all to be around him; we permit to let happen what happened to to what one does whiJe editing a film. nervy," filmmaker com­ felt so helpless to do anything." "At least Arthur," says photographer and friend Hilroy Narrow-Ruled Exercise Books ments. he got some of his agony transformed John Ma..x. catalogued sync shots, stock shots, "He seemed out of his time-period; into art," adds Don Brittain. In the end, Arthur Lipsett took "a per­ sound effects, stills: one book per cate­ his work would have belonged in a Arthur hated to ask for things, but manent vacation," the logical conclu­ gory, all bound with large rings. He also Chagall painting or would have been when he no longer had financial re­ sion to the road he had chosen. scribbled obscure notes on Cigarette more suited to the Dadaists or Sur­ sources, he was reduced to accepting He had tested just how close one can packages. realists of Paris in 1924, or 25 to 40 what others could give. He lived with come to the edge and come back to re­ Lipsett's film 'proposals' were full of years later using another medium," his aunt for most of his last years in a port on it. metaphoric associations. He considered Koenig continues. "People like to see small, modest apartment on St. Kevin "He seemed to be embarked on flirt­ these proposals a waste of time - a di­ development. Arthur did what he Street, where he slept on the front­ ing dangerously with extreme marginal­ version of his energy. needed to do in those few films. Life is room couch. Just before he died, he ity," says Derek May. "It would be in­ "At NFB program committees he a wasteful thing. He fl owed, then was made one final trip to Vancouver, then teresting to consider whether suiCide is would show up with circular charts to plowed over. Very Nice, Very Nice returned to Montreal. an outcome of such a temperament." explain his next film project. No-one on was the world as he perceived it. 21-87, To calculate why someone takes his Lipsett had attempted suicide on sev­ the committee wanted to admit they his second film, reflected what was hap­ life is absurd. Like the newspaper article eral occasions. When asked about this,'

didn't know what Arthur was talking pening to him internally." that superficially attempts to explain he would say, with a smile, "It was justJ about," Brittain recalls. why John Doe jumped out of the win­ one of my little experiments." "We felt he was on to something," 'How of my clay is made the dow on Saturday night at 9 p.m., maybe "Illness is the night-Side of life, a filmmaker Tanya Tree adds. "His range hangman's limes (Dylan Thomas) he did have an argument with his wife, more onerous citizenship. Everyone was vast. Everything interested him: Lipsett's last years were painful. Much maybe he hated to brush his teeth as a who is born holds dual citizenship, in Chinese dictionaries, Buddhist charts. of his time was spent in and out of the child or maybe the pizza man forgot to the kingdom of the well and in the king­ He was trying to find universals in Montreal Jewish General Hospital's psy­ deliver the pizza. dom of the sick," writes Susan Sontag in human culture, like an anthropologist. chiatric ward. Having ceased docu- What makes life worth living? Lipsett Illness as Metapbor. •

35 ARRI BL II NAGRAS STEREO TIME CODE LIGHTING HMI FRESNEL 16 AATON DOLLIES CRICKET SOFf ARRI BL SPIDER QUARTZ OPEN FACE ACL DOORWAY SUN GUNS NPR CP GRIP EQUIPMENT & SMOKE MACHINES BEAULIEU BOLEX YOU NAME IT, WE'VE GOT IT! CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT RENTALS LIMITED HEAD OFFICE LIGHTING nMSION 33 GRANBY STREET 960 EASTERN AVENUE TORONTO,ON,M5BIH8 TORONTO,ON,M4LIA6 (416) 977-7113 (416) 469-9777

14/Cinema Canada - October 1986