Christopher Maclaine (born Clifford Vernard McClain; July 27, 1923 – April 6, 1975) was an American poet and filmmaker.

Early life

Maclaine was born July 27, 1923, in

Wapanucka, Oklahoma Wapanucka (pronounced Wop´-uh-nuck´-uh) is a town in northeastern Johnston County, Oklahoma, Johnston County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 386 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. It is about northeast of Tishomingo ...

. His family was of Scottish descent. He attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, graduating in 1946 with a bachelor's degree in Spanish. He began a graduate program in English but left after one semester.

Career

After leaving UC Berkeley, Maclaine started the literary magazine ''Contour'' with Norma Smith. ''Contour'' published four issues from 1947 to 1949. Maclaine completed his first film ''

The End The End may refer to: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...

'' in 1953. Filmmaker

Jordan Belson Jordan Belson (June 6, 1926 – September 6, 2011) was an American artist and abstract cinematic filmmaker who created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented, abstract films spanning six decades. Biography Belson was born in Chicago, Illinois. ...

was the cameraman for the project. Their collaboration was marked by frequent conflict, with Belson upset that Maclaine would show up intoxicated in the middle of the night. Maclaine began working with Belson on a second film, ''The Man Who Invented Gold''. Maclaine played the main character, an

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

whose neighbors believe him to be mad. Unwilling to tolerate Maclaine's behavior, Belson quit before the project was complete. Maclaine took over as cameraman and had two additional actors play the lead. The resulting film was disjointed, cutting between three different people playing the same character and alternating between black-and-white and color footage. Maclaine made two more short films, ''Beat'' and ''Scotch Hop''.

Later life

Kinesis, the distributor for Maclaine's films, closed and his films went out of circulation. His health deteriorated after he began to use

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...

in the late 1950s. He began to show signs of

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety, suspicion, or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of co ...

, which worsened after being sent to prison for possession of marijuana. Maclaine gave his films to Willard Morrison of the Audio Film Center to be preserved and distributed. Maclaine suffered permanent brain damage and eventually was unable to recognize people he knew or care for himself. In 1969 he entered the Sunny Acres Convalescent Hospital in Fairfield. Morrison used the rental money from Maclaine's films taking care of him during his time in the hospital. Maclaine died there on April 6, 1975. His films are archived and preserved by

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclaine, Christopher 1923 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American poets American experimental filmmakers Film directors from Oklahoma American male poets Beat Generation people University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American male writers