Boing Boing pal Matt Haber wrote an article for the NY Times about Sid Lavernts, a guy who singlehandedly created many funny and offbeat movies, often featuring himself, combing el-cheapo equipment with extraordinary resourcefulness and creativity.
“Mr. Laverents’s first completed movie, ‘The Wonders That Surround Us: Snails’ (1966), is a 26-minute nature film set in the least exotic of locales: his backyard. Shot — at what must inevitably be described as a snail’s pace — over four years, the film captures its subjects with magnifying lenses Mr. Laverents designed himself. Playful and informative, it is somewhat reminiscent of Disney educational filmstrips. (Mr. Laverents sold ‘Snails’ and several of his other nature films to the California Department of Education for classroom use.) One thing that differentiates ‘Snails’ from Disney movies like the 1954’The Vanishing Prairie’ (aside from hundreds of thousands of dollars) is Mr. Laverents’s wit. On the sticky subject of snails’ mating habits, for example, he tells us: ‘A snail’s love life is considerably simplified by the fact that they are hermaphroditic.’ We see two snails press together. ‘So, no matter who meets whom, it’s always `boy meets girl.'”
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