More on the Jan-Mar Courts

Portland filmmaker Jim Blashfield found my blog (google yourself, a harmless ego-driven exercise and great fun) and sent me an anecdotal note recalling his work with Joni Mitchell in the Jan-Mar Courts/MTV days.

I posted animated films by Blashfield and Joan Gratz (see posts below) last week and Jim might have been feeling a little nostalgic when he wrote:

"The video that Melissa Marsland and I did (with the help of a bunch of people) for Joni Mitchell was filmed at the lovely Jan-Mar as well-- in Joan Gratz's corner apartment that faced the intersection of 26th and Raleigh. We shoved all Gratz's furniture into her bedroom and brought in our own furniture, along with lights and cameras and numerous cactuses. We even built a couple of walls outside the apartment's windows so that we could light them and lend an artificial sense to the exterior environment. You might be able to see the video called Good Friends online and, through its photography, add to the ongoing documentation of the lustrous J-M."

Has any one locale, outside a Hollywood sound stage, been used more for film purposes? Not in Portland, I'd guess. The funny deal is the apartments in the Jan-Mar were absurdly small, too.

That's called making the most of what you have to work with--spatially.

Writes Jim, "I have been doing multiple screen video installations over the past couple of years. If you are interested, my website is here."



TS