John made a number of short films in the ’60s; he gives a partial list of them here. Among other things, he experimented with animation, both drawn and stop-motion. “The Amoeba That Refused to Split” never progressed beyond 85 seconds of blurry silent footage, including several frames burned by the projector bulb. I don’t know how to upload it, so here it is for you to savor in storyboard format. We can only regret its abrupt ending. If John had continued it, it might have told the moving story of one of history’s earliest rebels.
Interesting. Did he draw the images on the film, a la Brakhage, or photograph them from a fixed mount?
Comment by Paul Thompson — August 5, 2026 @ 7:53 pm
He photographed them from his drawings, the old-fashioned way.
Comment by Doug — August 6, 2026 @ 8:08 am