John Dorr

Directing·Sep 22, 1944·Lancaster, Massachusetts

Rate

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.

Film	Credit
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country1993 · Director	Director
Season's Greetings1992 · John Dorr, Director	John Dorr, Director
The Battle of the Bards1990 · Director	Director
Do It Yourself Video for Poets1987 · Himself / John Dorr, Director, Writer	Himself / John Dorr, Director, Writer
Blonde Death1984 · Park Security Man	Park Security Man
Approaching Omega1983 · Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography	Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography
Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place1982 · Benchley, Producer, Director of Photography, Director, Writer	Benchley, Producer, Director of Photography, Director, Writer
As the World Burns1982 · TV repairman	TV repairman
The Case of the Missing Consciousness1980 · Nick Malace, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography	Nick Malace, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography
Sudzall Does It All!1979 · Buzzy Composition, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography	Buzzy Composition, Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography