Montage IV: The Garden of Eden

00:00 Introduction by Gordon Nelson, Digital Archivist, Moving Image Department, George Eastman Museum
03:31 Montage IV: The Garden of Eden

Montage IV: The Garden of Eden (US 1962)
Director: Richard J. Meyer
Script: Richard Grove
Cinematographer: Wayne Sourbeer
Sound: James Kramer
Music: Jean Eichelberger Ivey
Graphics: Ted T. Young
Voice: Guy Gebhardt
Narration taken from the writings of S. P. Dinsmoor
Production company: Montage Productions

Production date: 1962
Length (in feet): 354 ft. (16mm)
Length (in reels): 1
Sound: Variable Area/dualateral soundtrack
Color: Color reversal
Running time: 9 min., 43 sec.

Generous support for the video introduction provided by Art Bridges.

Preserved with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant program funded by The Film Foundation
Preserved at The Cinema Lab
Digitized by Eastman Film Preservation Services
This film has been made accessible to the public in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The small town of Lucas, Kansas, is home to one of America’s most unique triumphs of self-expression: S. P. Dinsmoor’s fantastical backyard concrete and wood rendering of the Garden of Eden. Dinsmoor’s self-constructed and wildly imaginative figures represent one man’s attempt to make sense of the world in which he lived. A Civil War veteran, farmer, and self-taught artist, Dinsmoor created a work perhaps more relevant today than ever before; witness Dinsmoor’s Labor Crucified surrounded by a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Preacher, and a Banker to know that this garden is still thriving today. Adding to Dinsmoor’s triumph is the collective work of Montage Production’s Richard Grove, Richard J. Meyer, and Wayne Sourbeer, a trio of avant-garde filmmakers who simply and effectively captured the power of Dinsmoor’s architectural sculptures under the blue-gray skies of southeastern Kansas and further emboldens them using Dinsmoor’s own words.