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    Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

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    Poster of the movie Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
    2006     Documentary    
    USA
    1h 34min

    For Jack Smith (1932-1989), Atlantis was both the idea of a fantastical utopia and the reality of the Lower East Side apartment in which this prophetic artist staged baroque, improvisational multi-hour one-man theatrical productions, often with a cast of stuffed animals and dolls. An avant-garde photographer, filmmaker, actor, performance artist, and all around "flaming creature," Smith has been credited as a major influence by Fellini, Godard and Jarmusch. In Mary Jordan's mesmerizing portrait, he fairly jumps off the screen: a combination mystic, comedian and madman, a protean artist whose vast energy and creativity were undermined (or perversely fed?) by the poverty of his day-to-day life and his paranoid misgivings about just about everything. If there is a heaven for the wonderfully bizarre, Jack Smith resides there, accompanied by his patron saint, Maria Montez.

    Directed byMary Jordan
    Written byMary Jordan
    CompanySundance ChannelSundance ChannelSundance Channel

    Featuring

    Jack Smith
    Nayland Blake
    Ira Cohen
    Tony Conrad
    Richard Foreman
    Ivan Galietti
    Helen Gee
    Robert Heide
    Henry Hills
    Gary Indiana
    Ken Jacobs
    Mike Kelley
    George Kuchar
    Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt
    Sylvere Lotringer
    Agosto Machado
    Judith Malina
    John Matturri
    Taylor Mead
    Jonas Mekas
    Mario Montez
    Billy Name
    William Niederkorn
    Uzi Parnes
    Lawrence Rinder
    Ari M. Roussimoff
    Andrew Sarris
    Mary Sue Slater
    Abbe Stubbenhaus
    Jerry Tartaglia
    + MORE

    © Sundance ChannelSundance ChannelSundance Channel