The
Boston Globe ran today this
obituary for experimental filmmaker, documentarian, and teacher Mark LaPore, who died September 11 in Boston.
LaPore's newest film (pictured at right),
Kolkata, will premiere next week at the New York Film Festival's "Views from the Avant Garde." From the piece:
"Mark McElhatten, cocurator of the Views from the Avant-Garde program of the New York Film Festival, described Mr. LaPore's films as ''unique, a form of visual anthropology but equally about the mystery of being and film as consciousness. These uncompromising films have enormous integrity and deserve a very important place within the entire history of film.'"
For the generation after him, LaPore was known for both his filmmaking but also his teaching. For many younger experimental filmmakers, LaPore was a seminal creative catalyst. Film and videomaker Erica Beckman taught at MassArt with LaPore and is quoted in the piece.
"'Mark was an absolutely inspired and committed teacher,' said Beckman, a MassArt faculty member who designed the school's filmmaking curriculum with Mr. LaPore. 'Students far and wide have followed careers in filmmaking because of him. He was an absolute artist, and in the last few months of his life finished four new films.'"
Another filmmaker, Elisabeth Subrin, spoke of LaPore's influence on her:
"'I can't think of any other single person who changed the course of my life than Mark,' said Elisabeth Subrin, a professor of film who taught at Harvard before going to The Cooper Union in New York. 'It's impossible to understand the impact he has had on many important filmmakers who went through his program,' she said. 'In the study of cultures through films, Mark was really ahead of his time.'"
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/25/2005 02:58:00 PM
Comments (8)
Never has a teacher offered so much for a student, as I felt Mark Lapore offered to me and ther rest of the students who have known him. People who have only met Mark in the passing were aware of his power and control. I fortunately had him as a teacher and witnessed his devotion towards both film and to any person he came in to contact with. I remember the first class I had with him was my first year at MassArt I took a super8 film class. The way he caressed the camera while describing its parts to us made me immediately know that this man is something amazing. His passion seemed to control all aspects about him. The way he moved through a room, his quietness. His seriousness. His directness. He wasted no time he was a man with an agenda, an agenda of an organized artist who was clean and smooth talking, someone who led his class like a drill sargent pacing infront of a group of artists eager to listen and follow his thought process.
I was a true admirer and still am, Mark was the strongest and most insprirational teacher I have ever had, and I adored him.
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posted by e.cohen @ 10/02/2005 2:45 PM
i cannot agree more. mark is truly an inspiring artist and teacher. now that i lost my mentor and good friend.
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posted by @ 10/03/2005 10:26 AM
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posted by m-spearin @ 10/03/2005 2:20 PM
Out of all the professors Ive had in my life, Mark was the most influential. He had an amazing way of connecting with his students both professionally but more so personally. He didn't just know your name, he knew what you were all about. I never once dreaded going to Mark's class like so many others because it was like going to meet a great friend for coffee.
Mark opened my eyes to many great genre's of film and gave me the support and confidence like no other.
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posted by m-spearin @ 10/03/2005 2:20 PM
I miss him dearly. If it weren't for him at a certain low point in my mental health I may have just deteriorated. I worked especially hard for his class ans was rewarded with Honors. To have received an Honors from Mark in his class as a senior has always been something I was extremely proud of. If there were one person I whole-heartedly trusted and admired it was him. He knew his shit. He was REALLY "cool", in the truest sense of the word. I always wished I could hang out with him. Like have him over to my apartment and listen to music together and eat chips or something. He is, in a big part, responsible for anything I have accomplished since his mentoring of me and will always be in anything I go on to accomplish in the future. Mark will always be somebody I want to make proud.
Jordan Kessler
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posted by @ 11/11/2005 10:15 AM
In a world where most people dissapoint,and turn out to be less than advertized, Mark was a delight, a warm spirit who was paying attention, working hard, encouraging others.... I will think of him when I am disgusted with people and life on earth.I will remember his ammused and sympathetic face and try to laugh this silly mess off. We love you Mark
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posted by @ 9/05/2006 1:45 AM
Mark LaPore was my first cousin. We grew up together in Southern California ... and shared the same birthday (two years apart). My fondest memories of Mark were watching him finish water-skiing by holding on to the tow rope too long, and coming to a stop just in time to sit on the pier ... reading Peanuts comics ... getting turned on to Lawrence of Arabia because of his enthusiasm for the music in this movie as he told me, "this is the only movie I have ever watched a second time just to hear the music" ... indeed, Mark was one of the funnest people I have ever known. I have not seen Mark for many years, but interestingly, we both were fascinated by India and Mother Teresa. I teach about her leadership style in my personal growth seminars ... James Roswell Quinn
Here's to you Mark. May you rest in peace.
Love, Ross
James Roswell Quinn
Sleepy Hollow, Illinois
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posted by James Roswell Quinn @ 10/22/2006 12:19 PM
