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    Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

    Poster of the movie Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
    2006     Documentary    
    USA
    1h 34min

    For Jack Smith (1932-1989), Atlantis was both the idea of a fantastical utopia and the reality of the Lower East Side apartment in which this prophetic artist staged baroque, improvisational multi-hour one-man theatrical productions, often with a cast of stuffed animals and dolls. An avant-garde photographer, filmmaker, actor, performance artist, and all around "flaming creature," Smith has been credited as a major influence by Fellini, Godard and Jarmusch. In Mary Jordan's mesmerizing portrait, he fairly jumps off the screen: a combination mystic, comedian and madman, a protean artist whose vast energy and creativity were undermined (or perversely fed?) by the poverty of his day-to-day life and his paranoid misgivings about just about everything. If there is a heaven for the wonderfully bizarre, Jack Smith resides there, accompanied by his patron saint, Maria Montez.

    Directed byMary Jordan
    Written byMary Jordan
    CompanySundance ChannelSundance ChannelSundance Channel

    Featuring

    Jack Smith
    Nayland Blake
    John Waters
    + MORE

    © Sundance ChannelSundance ChannelSundance Channel