Jack Chambers
Directing
Biography
Jack Chambers was born in 1931 in London, Ontario. He studied art there, worked construction, traveled to Mexico, and spent eight years in Europe He lived mostly in Spain, studying art in Madrid and converting to Roman Catholicism, returning to London in 1961 when he learned that his mother was dying of cancer. He became well-known as a painter (examples are in major Canadian museums) while also writing poetry, and in 1966 began making films.
Known For
The origin story of Bruce Wayne's legendary butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a former British SAS soldier who forms a security company in 1960s London and goes to work with young billionaire Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha, before they become Bruce Wayne’s parents.
Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman's Butler
"The Hart of London" is an endlessly layered tour de force. It explores life and death, the sense of place and personal displacement, and the intricate aesthetics of representation. It is a personal and spiritual film, marked inevitably by Chambers’s knowledge that he had leukemia. The late American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage said of Hart, "If I named the five greatest films [ever made], this has got to be one of them." Even this high praise falls short of hyperbole. The Hart of London is at the centre of Chambers’s extraordinary achievement.
The Hart of London
An intimate portrait of Jack Chambers, a major figure in the Canadian cultural landscape. This lyrical film includes the full range of his work from the age of thirteen until his death. The story is told in Chambers' own words through narration, and balanced by interviews with people who were close to Chambers at different times in his life.
Chambers: Tracks and Gestures
Circle is a 28-minute film, structured in three parts. Appropriately described by Gene Youngblood as an “extended haiku,” the film weaves elusive meaning out of simple form.
Circle
Chambers in R-34 impressionistically documents the work of London, ON collage artist Greg Curnoe through rhythmic and softly focused close-ups. Curnoe’s art intertwines with Chambers’ daily routines: collapsing the art practice of Curnoe with the art of everyday life.
R-34
Hybrid is a denunciation of Vietnam-War atrocities, photographs of which are spliced with scenes of gardeners cross-pollinating roses, an act depicted as mutilating but, ultimately, gorgeous.
Hybrid
An unusual version of the classic children's tale. Litte Red Riding Hood was performed at the Labatt Marionette Theatre in London, Ontario. The adaptation was written by James Reaney, the puppets were created by Greg Curnoe and the performance was filmed by Jack Chambers. This film was unreleased.
Little Red Riding Hood
Mosaic, a testament to Chambers’ astute interest in surrealism and Soviet constructivism, features his family prominently and predicts Hart’s epic handling of the birth/maturation/death cycle.