Don Levy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Don Levy was an artist and film-maker.

Levy was born in Bathurst, New South Wales

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. After studying theoretical chemistry at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, he was awarded a Research Scholarship to Cambridge University. There he obtained a PhD in Theoretical Chemical Physics in 1960. While at Cambridge, Levy became involved in the Film Society and made his first short films. After Cambridge he was awarded the first ever film scholarship in Britain to study in the newly created Film Department of the Slade School of Fine Art

Slade School of Fine Art

The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...

under the leadership of film-maker turned lecturer Thorold Dickinson

Thorold Dickinson

Thorold Barron Dickinson was a British film director, screenwriter, producer, and Britains's first university Professor of Film.-Early life and career:...

. He then made a number of short films for the Nuffield Foundation

Nuffield Foundation

The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...

, including the experimental documentary Time Is (1964).

In 1962, he otained a film-making grant from the British Film Institute

British Film Institute

The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

Experimental Film Fund for the production of an experimental feature film, Herostratus
Herostratus (film)
Herostratus is a 1967 film made in London by the Australian director Don Levy, about a young man who wants to commit suicide in public by jumping off a tall building. The title comes from the name of the Ancient Greek man Herostratus, who sought to immortalize his name by setting fire to the Temple...

. The film, made on a shoe-string budget, took over five years to be completed. It was co-financed between the BFI, the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

and former BFI Director James Quinn

James Quinn (BFI Director)

James Quinn was a film administrator, producer and exhibitor.He was best known as one of the longest-serving Directors of the British Film Institute...

. It was released in May 1968, opening at the ICA

Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...

in London, subsequently being screened at film festivals.

In 1968, Levy took up a position at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building actually built by Le Corbusier in the United States, and one of only two in the Americas...

at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, where he stayed for two years. He then moved to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

to work at the California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

, where he taught and conducted research in film, video and multimedia until his death in 1987.

Further reading