Directing

Lesley Keen

Known for

Directing

Credits

10 titles

Lesley Keen is a Scottish animator, director and digital art pioneer, best known for her experimental, non-linear animated films based on world mythology and classical art. Keen is known for Orpheus and Eurydice (1984), Orpheus Through the Ages (1985) and Ra: Path of the Sun God (1990).

Known for

Ra: The Path of the Sun God poster
6.3

A three-part animated feature film on themes from ancient Egyptian art and mythology. The first part of the film is given over to the Egyptian Genesis. Part two shows the intertwining of the world of the gods with that of the Divine Pharaoh, whom the ancient Egyptians believed to be the son of the Sun God Ra. In death, the Pharaoh continues his journey in the Underworld in the boat of the Sun God Ra, travelling through the twelve hours of night and conquering the powers of darkness before being resurrected at the dawn of the new day.

Ra: The Path of the Sun God

1990

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee poster
5.7

Tribute to the work of Paul Klee, Taking a Line For a Walk is an exploration and expansion of the Swiss painter's ideas on color and movement, funded by Channel Four and the Scottish Arts Council in 1983. An astonishing journey modeled and guided along lines from which cities, vast universes, aquatic worlds and ghostly individuals emerge until the lines become the heartbeat of a dialysis machine, uniform and terminal.

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee

1983

Burrellesque poster
NR

The travelogue is mobilised again by animator Lesley Keen in Burrellesque, commissioned for Glasgow’s European Capital of Culture 1990 programme. Drifting through Glasgow’s Pollok Park towards the Burrell Collection as seasons shift, Keen’s 35mm film convenes with the spiritual life of the artefacts held therein. These objects break out as kaleidoscopic visions, ripped from their place of origin; escapees pointing to Scotland’s own history of cultural extraction.

Burrellesque

1990

No artwork available
NR

Documentary showing the creation process of the animated short film.

Behind the Lines: The Making of Lesley Keen's Taking a Line For a Walk

1983

Invocation: An Ancient Greek Creation Myth poster
NR

Invocation originated as a sequence within the documentary Orpheus Through the Ages made by Pelicula Films to accompany Orpheus and Eurydice. It was designed to illustrate the Ancient Greek myth of the Creation of the world. It was shot on 16mm and subsequently enlarged onto 35mm for festival screenings. The techniques employed were a test run for those which ultimately were used within Ra; the Path of the Sun God. Two versions exist; one with narration and one without.

Invocation: An Ancient Greek Creation Myth

1984

Orpheus and Eurydice poster
5.5

This work is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the style of a Greek vase. When his wife Eurydice dies, Orpheus descends into Hell and by charming the gods of the Underworld with his singing wins Eurydice back, only to lose her again at the threshold of the Overworld'.

Orpheus and Eurydice

1984

Film credits

Behind the camera

Ra: The Path of the Sun God poster
6.3

A three-part animated feature film on themes from ancient Egyptian art and mythology. The first part of the film is given over to the Egyptian Genesis. Part two shows the intertwining of the world of the gods with that of the Divine Pharaoh, whom the ancient Egyptians believed to be the son of the Sun God Ra. In death, the Pharaoh continues his journey in the Underworld in the boat of the Sun God Ra, travelling through the twelve hours of night and conquering the powers of darkness before being resurrected at the dawn of the new day.

Ra: The Path of the Sun God

1990

Ra: The Path of the Sun God poster
6.3

A three-part animated feature film on themes from ancient Egyptian art and mythology. The first part of the film is given over to the Egyptian Genesis. Part two shows the intertwining of the world of the gods with that of the Divine Pharaoh, whom the ancient Egyptians believed to be the son of the Sun God Ra. In death, the Pharaoh continues his journey in the Underworld in the boat of the Sun God Ra, travelling through the twelve hours of night and conquering the powers of darkness before being resurrected at the dawn of the new day.

Ra: The Path of the Sun God

1990

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee poster
5.7

Tribute to the work of Paul Klee, Taking a Line For a Walk is an exploration and expansion of the Swiss painter's ideas on color and movement, funded by Channel Four and the Scottish Arts Council in 1983. An astonishing journey modeled and guided along lines from which cities, vast universes, aquatic worlds and ghostly individuals emerge until the lines become the heartbeat of a dialysis machine, uniform and terminal.

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee

1983

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee poster
5.7

Tribute to the work of Paul Klee, Taking a Line For a Walk is an exploration and expansion of the Swiss painter's ideas on color and movement, funded by Channel Four and the Scottish Arts Council in 1983. An astonishing journey modeled and guided along lines from which cities, vast universes, aquatic worlds and ghostly individuals emerge until the lines become the heartbeat of a dialysis machine, uniform and terminal.

Taking a Line for a Walk: A Homage to the Work of Paul Klee

1983

Burrellesque poster
NR

The travelogue is mobilised again by animator Lesley Keen in Burrellesque, commissioned for Glasgow’s European Capital of Culture 1990 programme. Drifting through Glasgow’s Pollok Park towards the Burrell Collection as seasons shift, Keen’s 35mm film convenes with the spiritual life of the artefacts held therein. These objects break out as kaleidoscopic visions, ripped from their place of origin; escapees pointing to Scotland’s own history of cultural extraction.

Burrellesque

1990

Burrellesque poster
NR

The travelogue is mobilised again by animator Lesley Keen in Burrellesque, commissioned for Glasgow’s European Capital of Culture 1990 programme. Drifting through Glasgow’s Pollok Park towards the Burrell Collection as seasons shift, Keen’s 35mm film convenes with the spiritual life of the artefacts held therein. These objects break out as kaleidoscopic visions, ripped from their place of origin; escapees pointing to Scotland’s own history of cultural extraction.

Burrellesque

1990

Invocation: An Ancient Greek Creation Myth poster
NR

Invocation originated as a sequence within the documentary Orpheus Through the Ages made by Pelicula Films to accompany Orpheus and Eurydice. It was designed to illustrate the Ancient Greek myth of the Creation of the world. It was shot on 16mm and subsequently enlarged onto 35mm for festival screenings. The techniques employed were a test run for those which ultimately were used within Ra; the Path of the Sun God. Two versions exist; one with narration and one without.

Invocation: An Ancient Greek Creation Myth

1984

Orpheus and Eurydice poster
5.5

This work is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the style of a Greek vase. When his wife Eurydice dies, Orpheus descends into Hell and by charming the gods of the Underworld with his singing wins Eurydice back, only to lose her again at the threshold of the Overworld'.

Orpheus and Eurydice

1984

Orpheus and Eurydice poster
5.5

This work is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the style of a Greek vase. When his wife Eurydice dies, Orpheus descends into Hell and by charming the gods of the Underworld with his singing wins Eurydice back, only to lose her again at the threshold of the Overworld'.

Orpheus and Eurydice

1984