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John Dorr

Directing

Biography

John Dorr (1944-1993), born in Massachusetts, first studied at Yale University (1962-1966), where he programmed the Film Society, created the Film Bulletin and completed a thesis on D.W. Griffith's last pictures. After moving to Los Angeles to study at UCLA (1966-1969), he shot his first shorts in 8mm and worked as a film critic for « Take One », « On Film », « Millimeter » or « The Hollywood Reporter », where he proved himself ruthless towards New Hollywood movies, hoping for another type of American cinema. The 1970s were spent writing around a dozen screenplays (from 1971 to 1978 : a gay priest drama, a vampire romance, a two-screen revisionist western, a six-hour Griffith biopic...) which all remained unproduced. In one of his poems, Dorr judged the decade harshly : « The 70s Suck ». After a short stay in Massachusetts (1977-1978), Dorr returned to California. Then, using one his friends' consumer-level B&W video camera, he decided to shoot his first feature, no longer waiting for the traditional production route. « Sudzall Does It All! » (1979) and its rapid follow-up, « The Case of the Missing Consciousness » (1980), were shown in a public screening at LAICA in March 1980. During the next two years, Dorr helped his friends with their own video projects, while completing his Dorothy Parker biopic, « Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place » (1982). All videos were shown under the « EZTV » banner in 1982, and a brick-and-mortar location, the « EZTV Video Gallery », was eventually opened in West Hollywood in 1983, with Dorr's fourth feature « Approaching Omega » (1983) and the ambition to offer a new production model for non-conventional artists in the 1980s. For Dorr, the next decade was spent maintaining EZTV's fragile existence, working as cameraman, editor, sound engineer, producer, and sometimes actor, in other people's projects. He himself only directed a handful of short subjects, or codirected documentaries on literature, poetry and film. His last fiction project, « The Three Cassandras », was abandoned after a few days of shooting. Dorr learned he was HIV-positive in the Spring of 1991, and died from AIDS-related complications in Los Angeles on January 1st, 1993.

Filmography Movies

Acting

Poster for The Case of the Missing Consciousness

The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Serving as a guinea pig in Dr. Wyoming's REM sleep research at the Second Sight institute, private detective Nick Malace is secretly implanted with a brain monitor by rival researcher Dr. Keiger.

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The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Poster for Sudzall Does It All!

Sudzall Does It All!

Shakespearian actress Cordelia Coventry is about to give up on her career when she is chosen by director Bruce Rapport to become the star of a national ad campaign for Sudzall washing powder.

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Sudzall Does It All!

Buzzy Composition

Poster for Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings

« When I returned to Los Angeles after my Christmas break, I found a rather belated Christmas present in my letterbox; it was John Dorr’s new film. John Dorr’s Seasons Greetings, the latest in a series of video letters that John sent to his friends each year. (…) Although I’ve never seen John’s other Christmas cards, his latest delivery is clearly different from those that preceded it, in that he knew he was ill when he made it. It begins with a short statement to the camera about living with AIDS, which serves as a prologue to a series of vignettes recorded during trips he made last year with companion George La Fleur. » Bill Krohn, « John Dorr’s New Year’s Greetings », Cahiers du cinéma, n°470, Nov. 1993

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Season's Greetings

Poster for Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

In 1963, living a routine life on Norma Place in Los Angeles, recluse writer Dorothy Parker and bisexual husband Alan Campbell recall their often-rocky relationship, started thirty years earlier.

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Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Poster for Do It Yourself Video for Poets

Do It Yourself Video for Poets

In a sarcastic mood, EZTV's founder John Dorr makes fun of the extensive aspiring Los Angeles spoken word scene of the 1980s and the enormous number of people who routinely approached EZTV asking for free service in getting their project made

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Do It Yourself Video for Poets

Himself / John Dorr

Poster for Blonde Death

Blonde Death

Tammy, a teenage timebomb, arrives in Orange County with her ignorant redneck parents, and eighteen years of bottled-up frustration give way to a summer of lethal excess. Get out the body bags; call in the SWAT team!

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Park Security Man

Poster for As the World Burns

As the World Burns

It's the Reagan years and all of the husbands in the neighborhood are turning gay.

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As the World Burns

Production

Poster for Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country

Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country

A documentary insight behind the scenes of Roberts Altman's Short Cuts.

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Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country

Poster for Dark Romances Vol. 1

Dark Romances Vol. 1

A horror movie duology: "The Black Veil" is set in 1888, as the widow of a psychiatrist visits a college friend who is performing in a theatre that enacts gruesome mutilations and torture. In "Listen to Midnight" a photographer recounts the events leading up to his murder, which is linked to a story he had heard in Japan about a female dragonfly luring the male to his death.

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Dark Romances Vol. 1

Executive Producer

Poster for Approaching Omega

Approaching Omega

Three people take a mountain hike together. Their relationships are explored in a comedy-drama that presents questions about life, evolution, synchronicity and dreams.

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Approaching Omega

Poster for The Case of the Missing Consciousness

The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Serving as a guinea pig in Dr. Wyoming's REM sleep research at the Second Sight institute, private detective Nick Malace is secretly implanted with a brain monitor by rival researcher Dr. Keiger.

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The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Poster for The Case of the Missing Consciousness

The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Serving as a guinea pig in Dr. Wyoming's REM sleep research at the Second Sight institute, private detective Nick Malace is secretly implanted with a brain monitor by rival researcher Dr. Keiger.

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The Case of the Missing Consciousness

Poster for Rimbaud in L.A.

Rimbaud in L.A.

In modern day Los Angeles, writer Paul Verlaine invites young provocating poet Arthur Rimbaud into the home of his step-family, losing interest in his wife as he becomes infatuated with the boy.

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Rimbaud in L.A.

Poster for Polly Perverse Strikes Again!

Polly Perverse Strikes Again!

Out of Nick Huxley's past comes Theresa, a social disease who sleeps with anything that moves and who has decided that she wants Nick back. Nick, a successful photographer with a stable relationship, is determined to banish Theresa and youthful folly from his life. But neither Nick's girlfriend Arliss, a modern spirit who believes in driving buried emotions out in the open, nor Theresa, who seems to have an unseen power on her side, are willing to let it go at that...

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Polly Perverse Strikes Again!

Executive Producer

Poster for Sudzall Does It All!

Sudzall Does It All!

Shakespearian actress Cordelia Coventry is about to give up on her career when she is chosen by director Bruce Rapport to become the star of a national ad campaign for Sudzall washing powder.

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Sudzall Does It All!

Poster for Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

In 1963, living a routine life on Norma Place in Los Angeles, recluse writer Dorothy Parker and bisexual husband Alan Campbell recall their often-rocky relationship, started thirty years earlier.

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Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Poster for Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

In 1963, living a routine life on Norma Place in Los Angeles, recluse writer Dorothy Parker and bisexual husband Alan Campbell recall their often-rocky relationship, started thirty years earlier.

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Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place

Director of Photography