Jeff Keen

Jeff Keen

Jeff Keen (1923–2012) was a pioneer of experimental film whose rapid-fire animations, multiple screen projections and raucous performances redefined multimedia art in Britain. Keen was a veteran of the Second World War, and his work powerfully evokes the violence, colour, speed and noise of the 20th century. He transformed cinema into a riotous collage of comics, drawings, B-movie posters, plastic toys, burning props and extravagant costumes. His early 8 mm and 16 mm films are built for speed, combining footage of Beat-era motifs – jazz, motorbikes and car culture – with experimental animations in which the achievements and atrocities of the 20th century seem to flash by within a few short, cacophonous seconds. A single frame could not contain the frenzied energy of Keen’s imagination, and by the mid-1960s he began to use multiple screens and live action in presentations of his work.

  • Title: Jeff Keen
  • Popularity: 0.296
  • Known For: Directing
  • Birthday: 1923-11-26
  • Place of Birth: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, UK
  • Homepage: http://www.jeffkeen.co.uk
  • Also Known As:
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Jeff Keen Movies

  • 2000
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    Art Flies Free

    Art Flies Free

    1 2000 HD

    A Super-8 portrait of Jeff Keen. This short but evocative experimental portrait melds Keen's style with that of its maker, Ian Helliwell, another...

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  • 1980
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    Return of Silver Head

    Return of Silver Head

    9 1980 HD

    The Keen family go on holiday in the jungles of the English countryside while the mysterious Silver Head - Jeff Keen wearing an inside-out,...

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  • 1986
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    Blatzom

    Blatzom

    8 1986 HD

    Jeff Keen dons paper masks and his knitted Artwar jacket, after avoiding bombs and pacing a moonlike landscape.

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  • 1961
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    Like the Time Is Now

    Like the Time Is Now

    9 1961 HD

    America comes to Brighton as three beatniks hang out, listen to records and smoke before strange hats appear out of nowhere and a cartoon bubble...

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  • 1964
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    The Pink Auto

    The Pink Auto

    9 1964 HD

    The Pink Auto, screened using two projectors, is one of the very first examples of expanded cinema. Jeff Keen walks as a zombie and carry his dead...

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  • 1967
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    Marvo Movie

    Marvo Movie

    8 1967 HD

    Four minutes of heavily cut-up sound and vision with collage, animation and multiple exposures throughout.

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  • 1968
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    White Lite

    White Lite

    8.3 1968 HD

    White Lite is something of a mystical film, evoking the feeling of going 'through the looking glass' to another world, despite the fact it was...

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  • 1967
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    Cineblatz

    Cineblatz

    9 1967 HD

    In Cineblatz, the viewer is subjected to a high-impact barrage of evolving images, at once comic and terrifying. Glossy magazines are cut up and...

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  • 1964
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    The Pink Auto

    The Pink Auto

    9 1964 HD

    The Pink Auto, screened using two projectors, is one of the very first examples of expanded cinema. Jeff Keen walks as a zombie and carry his dead...

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  • 1961
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    The Autumn Feast

    The Autumn Feast

    6.4 1961 HD

    A deliberately non-synchronous film, shot in 8mm with the sound on tape. Piero Heliczer reads his poem "The Autumn Feast," and the visuals interact...

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  • 1961
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    The Autumn Feast

    The Autumn Feast

    6.4 1961 HD

    A deliberately non-synchronous film, shot in 8mm with the sound on tape. Piero Heliczer reads his poem "The Autumn Feast," and the visuals interact...

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  • 1978
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    Mad Love

    Mad Love

    10 1978 HD

    Jeff Keen had a chance encounter with a collection of old 78 speed records at a Brighton flea market and used it as an opportunity to create a...

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  • 1993
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    Artwar: The Last Frontier

    Artwar: The Last Frontier

    8 1993 HD

    For this video, Jeff Keen had all his images for the Artwar series run together and over the top of each other.

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  • 1994
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    Artwar

    Artwar

    8 1994 HD

    This version of Artwar builds from performances with paper masks and implements and various sequences of gunfire.

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  • 1995
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    Omozap in Artwar

    Omozap in Artwar

    8 1995 HD

    This compilation work uses Keen's drawing computer, screams and gunfire and proclaims ' enemy territory is outside the frame. Includes the titles...

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  • 1990
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    Blatzom in Artwar

    Blatzom in Artwar

    8 1990 HD

    This vibrant montage of colours and positive and negative images shows Jeff Keen filtering and reflecting on his previous films.

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  • 1991
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    Plazmatic Blatz

    Plazmatic Blatz

    8 1991 HD

    Stealth bombers hover over crashing waves and ruined land. Using found footage and several thick layers of video, Jeff Keen presents and visceral...

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  • 1990
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    Plasticator

    Plasticator

    8 1990 HD

    Treating apocalyptic and aggressive imagery with silence and slow washes of colour, Jeff Keen exhibits and works against his usual tropes.

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  • 1990
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    Blazon Blatzom: El Pistolera Blatzo

    Blazon Blatzom: El Pistolera Blatzo

    8 1990 HD

    A documentation of Jeff Keen painting, using montage to turn a mild-mannered English painter into a Wild West gunslinger.

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  • 1990
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    Blazomatika

    Blazomatika

    8 1990 HD

    Produced by Jeff Keen for looping in an exhibition context.

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  • 2002
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    Omozap Terribelis

    Omozap Terribelis

    8 2002 HD

    'Omozap Terribelis' was shot on video and screened alongside 'Afterblatz 2'. It uses the toy 'My First Sony' to present a number of...

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  • 1989
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    Spontaneous Combustion

    Spontaneous Combustion

    9 1989 HD

    This relatively unknown Jeff Keen film presents an insistent series of exquisitely composed action and animation sequences and must be one of the...

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  • 1969
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    Family Star (The Mutt & Jeff Icecream Sundae + Mothman)

    Family Star (The Mutt & Jeff Icecream Sundae + Mothman)

    9 1969 HD

    Various different holiday locations ar joined together through the pleasures of ice cream in The Mutt & Jeff Icecream Sundae, while in Mothman the...

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  • 1969
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    Day of the Arcane Light

    Day of the Arcane Light

    9 1969 HD

    Experimental short directed by Jeff Keen.

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  • 1965
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    Missing Close-ups

    Missing Close-ups

    9 1965 HD

    Jeff Keen thought that some of his previous films had been dominated by long-shots. In this film he grapples with the language of cinema, not as a...

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  • 1965
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    Flik Flak

    Flik Flak

    9 1965 HD

    Comics, monsters and a zombified Keen are gently desecrated in this paint-flecked film that also features a picture of Jackie Keen crying...

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  • 1965
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    Instant Cinema

    Instant Cinema

    9.3 1965 HD

    This early quick-fire cut-up animation melds machine gunfire with scratched film. The soundtrack was made by Keen in 2007 with a wasp synthesizer and...

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  • 1962
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    Breakout

    Breakout

    8.5 1962 HD

    Breakout is an unfinished film and, unusually for Keen, contains a loose narrative. It presents the story of a young man hounded by a large pink...

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  • 1961
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    Like the Time Is Now

    Like the Time Is Now

    9 1961 HD

    America comes to Brighton as three beatniks hang out, listen to records and smoke before strange hats appear out of nowhere and a cartoon bubble...

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  • 1960
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    Wail

    Wail

    9 1960 HD

    Experimental short featuring motorbikes and animation. This is the second version of Jeff Keen's first film; that film became too worn.

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  • 1990
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    Artwar Loop 2

    Artwar Loop 2

    9 1990 HD

    The Artwar loops were made for non-cinematic exhibition and go from harsh film surface noise to colour bars and other video effects filmed from the...

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  • 1990
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    Artwar Loop 1

    Artwar Loop 1

    9 1990 HD

    The Artwar loops were made for non-cinematic exhibition and go from harsh film surface noise to colour bars and other video effects filmed from the...

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  • 1995
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    Artwar Fallout + Artwar 3

    Artwar Fallout + Artwar 3

    8.2 1995 HD

    Footage of the first Iraq War is jarringly intercut with shots of the artist painting at the local tip and at home. Drawing upon pivotal moments in...

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  • 2000
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    Joy Thru Film

    Joy Thru Film

    8.5 2000 HD

    Jeff Keen's final film pushes his conflation of personal history and war even further than before.

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  • 1986
    imgMovies

    Blatzom

    Blatzom

    8 1986 HD

    Jeff Keen dons paper masks and his knitted Artwar jacket, after avoiding bombs and pacing a moonlike landscape.

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  • 1991
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    Omozap 2

    Omozap 2

    7.5 1991 HD

    Omozap is a gun-wielding wildman and Keen anti-superhero akin to The Punisher. Compulsive animation and action look to the Artwar films and videos to...

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  • 1991
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    Omozap

    Omozap

    9 1991 HD

    Omozap is a gun-wielding wildman and Keen anti-superhero akin to The Punisher. Compulsive animation and action look to the Artwar films and videos to...

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  • 1984
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    The Dreams and Past Crimes of the Archduke

    The Dreams and Past Crimes of the Archduke

    9 1984 HD

    Jeff Keen's daughter gave him some music and sound effects recorded at the cinema and invited him to use it as the basis for a film. He added a...

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  • 1990
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    Pulverised Cinema

    Pulverised Cinema

    8 1990 HD

    Jeff Keen processes his cinematic past in this filmic attack on his back catalogue.

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  • 1999
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    Kino Staccato

    Kino Staccato

    8 1999 HD

    This bright animation cuts from interiors to exteriors and pushes pictures of Keen at different ages up against violent actions and symbols of...

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  • 1993
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    Kino Pulveriso

    Kino Pulveriso

    9 1993 HD

    The Artwar face peers through painted celluloid and a barrage of explosions and film noise.

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  • 1990
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    B-B-B Bom and Life Storm

    B-B-B Bom and Life Storm

    8.8 1990 HD

    From spinning paper guns to pulsing television screens, from zooms, crosscutting and painted film surfaces to burning paper, Jeff Keen uses all the...

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  • 1980
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    Victory Thru Film Power

    Victory Thru Film Power

    9 1980 HD

    A short, sharp, visceral attack on the news using, amongst other things, science fiction footage and scattered newspaper headlines.

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  • 1980
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    Return of Silver Head

    Return of Silver Head

    9 1980 HD

    The Keen family go on holiday in the jungles of the English countryside while the mysterious Silver Head - Jeff Keen wearing an inside-out,...

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  • 1972
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    White Dust

    White Dust

    10 1972 HD

    Named after the horror film White Zombie and the rom-com Red Dust (both 1932), White Dust follows the friends and family of Keen while they explore...

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  • 1979
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    The Cartoon Theatre of Dr Gaz

    The Cartoon Theatre of Dr Gaz

    9 1979 HD

    Action and animation are pushed to the extreme in this frenetic film. Keen makes references to the God-like status of the director, the framed world...

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  • 1975
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    24 Films

    24 Films

    9 1975 HD

    Made between 1970 and 1975, Jeff Keen's films always contain internal layers and films within films. The twenty-four films here include hand-painted...

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  • 1970
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    Rayday Film

    Rayday Film

    8 1970 HD

    Rayday Film was shown projected in several 100-foot length parts from multiple projectors. The friends and family who featured in costume and...

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  • 1968
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    Meatdaze

    Meatdaze

    9 1968 HD

    Made to represent an entire cinema programme, Meatdaze consists of six sections that include cartoons, supporting and main features.

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  • 2002
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    Afterblatz 2

    Afterblatz 2

    8 2002 HD

    'Afterblatz 2' was shot on video and screened alongside 'Omozap Terribelis'. It uses the toy 'My First Sony' to present a number of...

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  • 1972
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    Diary Films

    Diary Films

    1 1972 HD

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  • 1967
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    Marvo Movie

    Marvo Movie

    8 1967 HD

    Four minutes of heavily cut-up sound and vision with collage, animation and multiple exposures throughout.

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  • 1976
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    Godzilla: Last of the Creatures

    Godzilla: Last of the Creatures

    8.8 1976 HD

    One of Jeff Keen's diary films. Keen made many diary films with his daughter, wife and friends in the late 60s and 70s. These were edited in camera...

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  • 1975
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    Rosa Canina

    Rosa Canina

    8 1975 HD

    One of Jeff Keen's diary films. Keen made many diary films with his daughter, wife and friends in the late 60s and 70s. These were edited in camera...

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  • 1975
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    Lone Star

    Lone Star

    8 1975 HD

    One of Jeff Keen's diary films. Keen made many diary films with his daughter, wife and friends in the late 60s and 70s. These were edited in camera...

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  • 1972
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    Stolen Moments

    Stolen Moments

    8 1972 HD

    One of Jeff Keen's diary films. Keen made many diary films with his daughter, wife and friends in the late 60s and 70s. These were edited in camera...

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  • 1968
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    White Lite

    White Lite

    8.3 1968 HD

    White Lite is something of a mystical film, evoking the feeling of going 'through the looking glass' to another world, despite the fact it was...

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  • 2006
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    Eyeblaze

    Eyeblaze

    1 2006 HD

    Experimental animation created using a video pen.

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  • 1965
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    The Games and Diversions of Dr. Gaz

    The Games and Diversions of Dr. Gaz

    1 1965 HD

    Silent 8mm film.

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  • 1994
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    Hamma Blatz Onata

    Hamma Blatz Onata

    1 1994 HD

    Short video by Jeff Keen.

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