We’ve started a GoFundMe page to raise $20,000 to complete the animation and finish GHOST MONEY. GHOST MONEY is a 90-minute narrative documentary about the filmmaker’s return to Vietnam to search for his wartime lover only to find that he might have fathered her child. After a year without results, he falls in love again, this time with a Vietnamese mother of two. Through a rich fusion of live-action footage, hand-drawn animation and rare archival film spanning five decades, Ghost Money is a commentary on the legacy of the Vietnam War—broken families, unfinished lives and left-over children.
Working on a new series of documentaries about the cultures of Indonesia called Unfinished Worlds. The first two are about 30-minutes each covering Bali and Tana Toraja. The style is observational, without narration. I hope they will be useful in Anthropology classes. They will be available later this year. Here’s a teaser:
Lawrence recently completed a documentary called The Harney Way, about the collaboration between bird conservationists and ranchers in the Harney Basin. Ester Lev , a wetland ecologist, was the executive producer. It was shot by Anthony Vasiliadis, sound was recorded by Kai Tillman and Nicholas Decker. Ryan Webb was the production assistant. Jason Edwards with Newkrackle Sound Design did the mix.
Executive Producer Esther Lev with Conservationist Bob Sallinger.Anthony Vasiliadis shooting.Larry with ranchers Mitch and Linda Baker.
The Harney Way is a 30-minute documentary that celebrates the collaborative spirit in the Harney Basin of Southeastern Oregon, where ranchers and conservationists work together on a basin-wide vision that conserves wet meadow habitats in perpetuity and in turn supports flood irrigation, agricultural activities, health and survival of bird populations, and the Harney Basin economy.
The unique, high desert hydrology of the area, sometimes flooding, sometimes dry, calls for highly adaptive responses from wildlife, plants, and humans. An important stop on the Pacific Flyway, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding private lands call for careful management. Through the voices and activities of leading conservationists, ranching families, The Burns Paiute Tribe, and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, we are immersed in the world of Steens Mountain and the Silvies and Donner Und Blitzen watersheds. This collaborative approach provides community optimism that this complex landscape can be maintained into the future in support of both diverse bird populations and the livelihoods of rural families and communities.
The film is dedicated to Conservationist Bob Sallinger, a major voice in the collaborative effort to integrate social, economic, and ecological values to support wetlands, streams, flood-irrigated meadows, emergent marshes, and other wetland types of the Harney Basin.
The Harney Way was produced by wetlands ecologist Esther Lev and Portland filmmaker Lawrence Johnson and was funded through Oregon House Bill 2010 to support Harney Basin Wetlands Collaborative’s public engagement work supporting wetlands restoration in Harney Basin, for the benefit of lands, community and wildlife in southeast Oregon.
To arrange for a screening of the film, please contact Marla Polenz at the High Desert Partnership. marla@highdesertpartnership.org
Uncle Plaster announces the release of a new animated music video featuring Buzz Holland, Dan Eccles and Rose Esposito. Buzz, writer and performer, longs to see “through a butterfly’s eyes.” And we can see how through a brief life of impermanence, of perpetual metamorphosis, the butterfly lives fully and beautifully. We humans are always trying to keep things the same, and in that process we tend to squelch the very things that make life worth living – the joys and experiences that that grow out of what changes, not what stays the same. Enjoy!
Butterfly with Buzz Holland, created by Uncle Plaster.
We’re excited that our film Native Wisdom: The Peoples of Eastern Oregon has been nominated for best documentary at the 45th Annual American Indian Film Festival. Congratulations to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. We worked closely the Tribes to develop these programs. We hope this film reflects the reality of the affects of climate on Native culture through the First Foods – salmon, game, roots and berries.
Elder Cecelia Bearchum digging roots, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indians.
We’re pleased to announce that OPB Plus will be showing two documentaries I made with Executive Producer Rose High Bear of Wisdom of the Elders. Co-produced and co-directed by myself, Kunu Bearchum and Tim Keenan Burgess, the films show how Oregon Tribes are confronting climate change as it affects their culture. One of the films was featured at the Bend Film Festival and is up for Best Documentary at the American Indian Film Festival.
Lawrence Johnson and Rose High Bear shooting the Native Wisdom series on the Oregon coast.
The dates are:
Native Wisdom: The Peoples of Eastern Oregon — November 18 – 7pm and November 19 – 4 am
Native Wisdom: The Peoples of Western Oregon — November 25th – 7pm and November 26th – 4am
I’m happy to announce that we’ve released my new animated film celebrating the Skyline Tavern Project. Produced by Scott Ray Becker and Meg Thibodeaux, and directed by yours truly, the five and 1/2 minute piece celebrates the wild and wooly biology—both human and non-human—of the Skyline Tavern. Five months in the making, the film features my hand drawn animation, and the music of The Black Dogs of Skyline, led by Kris Stuart.
Sparrow X. Carter – Aphorist, essayist and prophet.
If you’ve spent any time on this site, you may have noticed in the sidebar to the right a feature called “Sparrow’s Proverbs.” I found out about this prophet of the modern world several decades ago. His musings still get me going. Aphorisms such as “You must open your eyes to cry” or “One noodle, long enough, is a meal” or “The economy has no manners,” delight through their brevity, humor and truth. I located his contacts on Twitter and Facebook. He’s written some books, such as How to Survive the Coming Collapse of Civilization (and Other Helpful Hints) and Goodbye, Patriarchy.
His bio, characteristically brief, reads: SPARROWplays flutophone in the underrated pop group Foamola, whose latest song is “I Seem to Have Lost My Can Opener.” He lives in the Catskill Mountains.
So watch for new proverbs now and again. Hopefully we’ll get through most of them before civilization finally does collapse.
On May 18, 2019, Wisdom of the Elders held the first public screening of two new one-hour films about Native Oregonians and climate change. Hosted by the Portland Art Museum/NW Film Center, over 200 people attended the screenings and stayed for energetic Q&As with the filmmakers. Here’s a trailer for the screening. You can get dvd copies of the series from Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. Here’s a trailer:
Getting excited about the upcoming showing of two films I directed for Wisdom of the Elders about Oregon Native People and how climate change is affecting traditional foods, Monday October 13th, 7-9pm at OMSI, 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, Oregon 97214.
Coos and Coquille boatman try out a traditional canoe, Sunset Bay, Oregon.
Come on out and enjoy a look at Oregon’s Coastal and Interior Tribes and some of the great things their doing in habitat and species restoration to benefit all of us. Here’s a link to the Facebook event.
Lawrence Johnson Productions 