Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM
2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles
Lightstruck presents *Jordan Belson: Knowledge Beyond Words pgm II.* On June 25 and July 9, Lightstruck is honored to present two evenings devoted to one of cinema's unparalleled visionaries – Jordan Belson – an artist and filmmaker whose singular body of work has justifiably been the subject of devoted contemplation and ecstatic appreciation for over six decades. Belson's films defy concrete description, which is part of their deep and personal appeal, hinting as they do at "a knowledge that is beyond words", as Belson once told writer and curator Raymond Foye (to whom we are greatly indebted for being able to present these programs). While his earliest films embodied more familiar aspects of mid-century non-objective visual art, the early 1960s marked a radical shift into intensely mystical and elusive imagery – achieved largely through Belson's own remarkable photographic techniques – to give miraculous form to the innermost regions of imagination and consciousness. Our second program devoted to the films of Jordan Belson spans his career up to the early 1970s, with a selection of ever-evolving and -expanding techniques of singularly mystical expression, most films screening on recently struck 16mm prints, courtesy of the Belson estate and Raymond Foye. Inspired by relationships to the worlds of Non-Objective art, jazz, meditation, and encounters with West Coast artist friends such as Harry Smith and James Whitney, Belson was consistently exploring and discovering new methods and mediums of visualization that engage with a level of consciousness which feels thrilling and otherworldly, yet somehow deeply familiar. In the late 1950s, through his planetarium “Vortex Concerts” in collaboration with sound artist Henry Jacobs, Belson amplified his vision with complex multimedia light shows which helped define the concept of “expanded cinema” and greatly influenced his filmmaking techniques. In the late 1960s, he began exploring the medium of video, synthesizing multilayered contemplations in such films as Cosmos. In 1974, Belson would team up with video artist, musician, and polymediast, Stephen Beck, to produce one of the ultimate visionary fusions of film and video in Cycles, which will conclude the evening in a glorious 16mm print. The films screening in this program are: Bop Scotch (1952), Mandala (1952), Séance (1959), Re-Entry (1964), Momentum (1968), Cosmos (1969), Light (1973), Union (1975, by Stephen Beck), and Cycles (1974, by Jordan Belson & Stephen Beck). Huge thanks to (and all films courtesy of) Raymond Foye and the Jordan Belson estate, with additional thanks to Stephen Beck and Electronic Arts Intermix for providing Union. Notes and program by Zena Grey and Mark Toscano.