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Larry Yust's most significant contribution to educational film was through a finely crafted, intriguing, and intellectually stimulating series of dramatic films made for Encyclopaedia Britannica from roughly 1965-1975. Yust's 'Short Story Showcase' films are, we feel, one of the three great serial dramatic bodies of work of the 1965-1985 era of educational film, the others being the Robert Geller-produced "American Short Story" distributed by Perspective Films, and the fine continual series of dramatic films done by John Barnes from approximately 1959 through 1975. In addition to his film work, Yust is an accomplished photographer, as evidenced by his book Salvation Mountain: the Art of Leonard Knight (1998 New Leaf Press, ISBN 0-9660778-9-X). Today, Yust continues to be engaged in new photography projects. His latest work involves photographic elevations, which "[are] made by moving in a line parallel to the face of the subject - walking on the opposite sidewalk of a Los Angeles street, or crouching at the rail of a Vaporetto traveling down the Grand Canal in Venice and snapping overlapping shots, with the camera always aimed directly at the subject on a line perpendicular to its face. Recording the images fifteen or thirty for each Elevation takes minutes. Fitting them together in the computer into a single image takes longer, typically two or three days of exacting work." These are powerful images, and can be seen at: http://www.whatinternational.com/photos/photos.html His new book, Metro: Photographic Elevations of Selected Paris Metro Stations was published by Ginko Press in 2004, where each open out into a three-foot wide panorama. His work was exhibited in the Louvre in 2005. Biographical notes and filmographyYust, whose father Walter was the editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, was exposed to films (and filmmakers) at an early age, when his father took him to Hollywood on a business trip for the purpose of collecting data on the film industry for the encyclopaedia. Later attending Stanford University as a drama major, he became involved with the theatre department, singing first Gilbert and Sullivan, then onto comtemporary musicals. He also developed an interest in set design, lighting, and directing. After military duty (television programming with Walter Reed Army Hospital as part of the Signal Corps' Army Pictorial Service), Yust further developed his craft at other television stations, most notably XETV, the ABC outlet in Tijuana. Yust's film career began with a series of health and safety films for EB in 1957-1959, followed by a number of science shorts made in conjunction with Dr. Al Baez. An incomplete filmography of these films would include:
Explaining Matter: Atoms and Molecules (1958) In 1959-60, he filmed a series of physical science titles at MIT for the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC). among which was: Long Time Intervals (1960) PSSC DNA: Molecule of Heredity (1960). Featuring
Dr George W Beadle, 1958 Nobel Prize winner. Short Story Showcase, a series of 16mm dramatic films made between 1969-1977, were released by Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation, fourteen of which were written, directed, and edited by Larry Yust, photographed by Isidore Mankofsky, and produced by the filmmaker in conjunction with Clifton Fadiman . Several of the following films have a companion ten minute short entitled "Discussion of __________", which provides insight into the goals of the author, objectives of the filmmaker, and an overview of the events surrounding the writing of the original story. "Short Story Showcase" films made by Yust were: Bartleby (1969). Also "Discussion of" EB's "Short Play Showcase" consisted of six films, all directed by Yust, as follows: The Well of the Saints (1975), along with Editing
a Film, in which the director describes post production Yust also made a series of films on Nutrition for Wexler Films. These include: (Great) Big Dinner Table Larry produced several films for PBS. Among them are: Requiem for a Nun (1974),
written by William Faulkner, starring Sarah Miles Larry Yust's feature films include: Trick Baby (1970)
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