Filmmaker: Sidney N. Laverents

Laverents pictured via TCM.

Sidney N. Laverents

Club Affiliation

Amateur Movie Club of San Diego

Gender:

Male

Awards/Recognition:

PSA Ten Best 1963, PSA MPD Humorous Film Award 1963
PSA Ten Best 1964 - Honorable Mention
PSA Ten Best 1965, PSA MPD Nature Award Sponsored by Dick Bird 1965
IAC Challenge Trophy for the Best Entry from Overseas, 1969
PSA Ten Best 1970, PSA Golden Microphone Award 1970
Canadian International Amateur Film Festival 1977 - Best Sound
PSA Ten Best 1977, PSA Best Nature Film 1977
Society of Amateur Cinematographers Contest 1977 - First Prize
10 Best of the West, 1977
Canadian International Amateur Film Festival, 1984 - Special Commendation, Category 'A'
SCCA Annual Contest, 1994 - Special Commendation Award for Wry Comedy
UCLA Film & Television Archive list of titled amateur films

Films:

Butterfly with Four Birthdays, The (1965)

• Video: via A/V Geeks, Archive.org

1969 Our First Year ()

Making of Dinosaur Dream, The (1995)

Shine On, Harvest Moon (1982)

It Sudses, and Sudses, and Sudses (1963)

Alaska ()

Drip, The (1994)

Stop Cloning Around (1980)

One Man Band, The (1964)

Investment Story, An ()

Go to Bed Norm (1974)

Sid Saga, The (1985)

Multiple Sidosis (1970)

• Video: Multiple Sidosis on YouTube

Canada ()

Heads You Win ()

Fisherman, The (1982)

Cancun ()

Heidi (1977)

Man In Black, The (2000)

All I Want for Christmas (1965)

Charlotte’s Balloon Ride ()

Indian Summer (1980)

Tattooed Lady, The (1996)

Trip to Yesterday, A (1969)

Let’s Take the Long Way Home (1960)

Snails – and How They Walk (1966)

Dinosaur Dream (1995)

Listen to the Mockingbird (1977)

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Related Professional Works:

• Environmental Enclosure (promotional film)
• I Christen Thee (promotional film)

Biographical Notes:

From National City, California. "By the time he completed his four-part magnum opus, The Sid Saga (1985-2003), Sid Laverents had attained superstar status on the amateur filmmaking scene. Born Sidney Nicklas Laverents in 1908, his real estate speculator father had dragged the family back and forth across the nation in search of the next land boom, resulting in a picaresque education and an appreciably eclectic sensibility. Already a student of piano and drums, Laverents taught himself banjo, ukulele, and harmonica and supported himself during the Depression as a one-man band on the vaudeville circuit. Married for the second time and settled in San Diego before World War II, Laverents worked for the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation from 1941 until 1967 (apart from a stretch in the military, repairing planes in India for the United States Army). In 1956, he bought a 16mm Bolex camera to film his parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary and two years later joined the San Diego Amateur Movie Makers Club. With exquisite patience, Laverents progressed from filming travelogues and garden snails to manipulating image and sound via sophisticated in-camera editing techniques. Prepared for exhibition at his film club, Laverents' 9-minute Multiple SIDosis (1970), in which the filmmaker performs Felix Arndt's 1916 ragtime instrumental "Nola" on uke, ocarina, Jew's harp and other instruments, all depicted via multiple exposures (from two to ten), became a staple of film rental outfits and was included in the National Film Registry in 2000, when Laverents was 92 years old." TCM.com

Bibliographic Resources:

"The Sid Saga," via TCM.com.
"Amateur filmmaker Sidney Laverents dies at 100," Obituary via the Los Angeles Times.
"Sid Laverents, Auteur of Homemade Films, Dies at 100." The New York Times, May 16, 2001.
"Sid N. Laverents Oral History" via the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
PSA Journal, Oct. 1963, 39. PSA Journal, Sept. 1964, 49. PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 49. PSA Journal, Nov. 1970, 38.