James Whitney (filmmaker)

James Whitney (December 27, 1921 – April 8, 1982), younger brother of John, was a filmmaker regarded as one of the great masters of abstract cinema.

James Whitney was born December 27, 1921, in Pasadena, California, and lived all his life in the Los Angeles area.

James completed a number of short films over four decades, two of which required at least five years of work.

James spent 3 years working on Variations on a Circle (1942), which lasts some 20 minutes, and was made with 8mm film.

Following this period, James became more involved in spiritual interests such as Jungian psychology, alchemy, yoga, Tao, and Jiddu Krishnamurti.

James was a potter and ceramicist, interested in raku ware, and examples of his pottery still exist today.

Soon after Vortex, the film acquired its soundtrack, when Jordan Belson synchronized it to an excerpt from Henk Badings’ "Cain and Abel".

James drew dot patterns again for this film, but the camera was positioned using computer control, allowing each image to be overlaid from multiple angles.

In this piece, smaller circles oscillate in and out in an array of colors resembling a kaleidoscope while being accompanied by Indian sitar music.

Dwija (1973), meaning "twice-born" or "soul" in Sanskrit, is completely solarized, and much of the imagery is re-photographed by rear-projection to create a constant flow of hardly definable transformations of color and form.

Wu Ming (1977), meaning "no name" in Chinese, repeats a single action over and over – a particle disappears into infinity, and returns as a wave.

James described the particle-to-wave action in Wu Ming as being "like throwing a pebble into water and seeing the ripples spread out".

His two final films, intended to form a quartet with Dwija and Wu Ming, were Kang Jing Xiang and Li, which were left incomplete when James died April 8, 1982, after a brief and unexpected illness.

Willis, Holly: Cinema Du Dots: LA Weekly, 2005 Moritz, William.