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“Film is the art form of the 20th century, combining photography, music, acting, writing, everything. Everything that I was interested in all came together with that one art form.” - Ray Manzarek, 2013
About Our Campaign:
Before they were members of the world-famous rock group, The Doors, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek were film students at UCLA between 1963 and 1965. In honor of the late Ray Manzarek’s 80th birthday and the upcoming centennial of the university, the UCLA Film & Television Archive is turning to cinephiles and The Doors fans everywhere to join our archivists in restoring Ray & Jim’s student films.
While Morrison’s own film project has been lost to time, UCLA Film & Television Archive holds original prints of two films directed by Ray Manzarek and two films that involved Jim Morrison as camera or sound person, as well as a fifth film in which Manzarek plays the second lead.
Preserving these films before it’s too late contributes not only to the history of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, but also to the history of American cinema and The Doors.
With your help, UCLA Film & Television Archive will raise $65,000 to restore two films initially: Evergreen (Ray Manzarek, 1965) and Five Situations for Camera, Recorder and People (Alexander Prisadsky, 1965). Partner with The Archive and The Doors fans everywhere by joining The Jim Morrison & Ray Manzarek Preservation Project so that these films can be restored, protected, be made available for online viewing on The Archive’s website, and eventually screened (once again) in our theater at UCLA.
The Restoration Process:
Film restoration is costly, time consuming work. Such highly technical work must be painstakingly accomplished by hand, removing every spot and imperfection individually. With your support, a new 35mm negative will be produced to protect the original prints, while access copies will be generated digitally.
Utilizing the original master prints, which have been screened repeatedly over the years and therefore suffer from significant damage, including scratches and tears, UCLA Film & Television Archive will digitize and restore these films to their former glory, scanning the materials and then utilizing digital preservation tools to clean up the image and sound.
Ray & Jim at UCLA:
Ray Manzarek attended UCLA from late 1961 to 1965 and graduated with a master's degree in Film. Jim Morrison attended UCLA from 1964 to 1965 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in film. As his student work demonstrates, Manzarek was a talented filmmaker who could have had a career in film, had he not joined Morrison in forming The Doors in the summer of 1965.
One of the first public appearances of The Doors was in fact at a student film event at UCLA’s Royce Hall in December 1965, called “Op, Pop & Kicky Flicks.” The program included Manzerak’s lost silent, eight-minute film, Who and Where I Live (1965), during which The Doors performed, Alex Pirsadsky’s Five Situations with sound by Morrison; and Ronald Raley’s Patient 411: A Progress Report (1965), which featured young Jim Morrison’s camera work.
Presaging Manzarek’s own future, Evergreen’s hero is a jazz musician who is having an affair with a young art student, but apparently can't commit to a long-term relationship. Coincidently, the film stars Dorothy Fujikawa, who would also co-star in Ray’s second UCLA film, Induction (1966), and become Ray’s wife in 1967. The film was screened at the 5th Semi-Annual Evening of Student Films on May 21st, 1965.
Induction seems to be almost a sequel to Evergreen in that it carries on Ray’s meditation about relationships among young professionals, even quoting from the first film. In the second film the hero is named Ray (played by Manzarek), a film student who loses one girlfriend, then finds another, again played by Dorothy. As in Evergreen, scenes were shot in the Venice Beach apartment shared by Ray and Dorothy. Jim Morrison can be seen briefly in the extended party sequence. Apart from early screenings, the film was shown in 1980 at a special retrospective at Filmex, the Los Angeles International Film Exhibition.
Join the Ray & Jim Preservation project today and help the Archive raise $65,000, enough to restore Evergreen and Five Situations for Camera, Recorder and People. Once the original goal is reached, any additional funds will be used toward beginning the restoration work on Induction.
Five Situations for Camera, Recorder and People was produced in March 1965 as part as a UCLA film workshop. It is a surrealistic montage of scenes that metaphorically escalate to ever more violent forms of male behavior.
Alexander Pirsadsky recalls Jim Morrison’s involvement in the film: “Before the shooting of Five Situations, I asked all my crew, along with my friends who were in it, to wear dark suits. Morrison was the only one on the crew who didn’t have one, which was one of the reasons I asked him to be the sound man. The other was that I had seen he had a feeling for sound. He had used some outtakes from someone else’s film, some aerial shots I think, and placed various sounds over them: some Bach, and then some thunder. Each transformed the image into something new and mysterious. After another student’s audio mix session, Jim once said, "Maybe I should be in radio instead of film".
More About The Archive:
UCLA Film & Television Archive is renowned for its pioneering efforts to rescue, preserve and showcase moving image media, and is dedicated to ensuring that the collective visual memory of our time is explored and enjoyed for generations to come. A unique resource for media study, The Archive is one of the largest repositories of moving image materials in the world with more than 450,000 holdings.
The collection spans more than a century of moving image history, including numerous Hollywood classics narrative and documentary features, avant-garde and independent productions, LGBTQ media, television series, news and public affairs programs, and over 27 million feet of newsreel footage. The Archive is also celebrated for its restoration efforts, and many of its projects are presented at prestigious venues and film festivals around the globe.
All gifts bring us closer to restoring Ray & Jim's student works! To thank you for your donation of at least $1, you'll be listed in a group shout out on the UCLA Film & Television's Facebook page!
With your contribution of $50 to $99, in addition to the above perks, you'll receive an invitation to the film screening of the restored films Evergreen and Five Situations at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood. (December 2019/January 2020)
With your donation of $100 to $499, in addition the above perks, you'll receive a UCLA Film & Television Archive exclusive campaign collectible guitar pick.
With your donation of $500 to $999, in addition to the above perks, you'll earn 2 reserved seats at the film screening of the restored films Evergreen and Five Situations at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood. (December 2019/January 2020)
With your gift of $1,000 to $4,999, in addition to the above perks, you'll be sent a copy of Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together - a rare look into the life of Jim Morrison - written by Frank Lisciandro, Jim's friends and film collaborator. (fully tax deductible)
With your gift of $5,000 to $9,999, in addition to the above perks, you'll be invited to tour the Archive STOA (located in Santa Clarita California) and will receive an authentic frame from a 35mm work print of one of the restored films, and will receive Restoration Funding Credit.(subject to availability – limit 4 per film)(fully tax deductible)
For your donation of $10,000 to $14,999, in addition to all of the above perks, you'll be given a thumb drive of all films preserved by this campaign (2TB USB Flash Drive)(fully tax deductible)
For your incredible contribution of anything greater than $15,000, in addition to the above perks, you'll be listed as the Lead “Presented by” Film Restoration Credit on the restoration of one film (subject to availability – limit 4 per film)(fully tax deductible)