Leonard Lipton

Coraline

Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.

Puff the Magic Dragon: The Incredible Mr. Nobody

The magic dragon teaches a boy to believe in his own creative abilities.

Puff the Magic Dragon: The Land of the Living Lies

Sandy is a little girl with a penchant for whoppers. However, when her lies start go so far as to implicate the innocent for her own misdeeds, Puff decides to step in. Using his magic, Puff takes Sandy to the Land of Living Lies where everyone tells the most ridiculous lies and honesty is persecuted. Only when Sandy realizes the need for honesty can she help Puff escape this insane world. Written by Kenneth Chisholm

Puff, the Magic Dragon

Jackie is a boy who is so trapped by his fears and doubts that he could not communicate with anyone. Then, a magic dragon named Puff comes to help Jackie by taking his soul force on a wonderous voyage to his island of Honah Lee. Along the way, they have adventures that nurture Jackie's imagination and courage in unorthodox ways.

Barge Dwellers

About the citizens of the houseboat colony in Sausalito, their ways of living, and their struggle with urban planners.

Father’s Day

A film by Leonard Lipton

Children of the Golden West

A provocative documentary kaleidoscope of Berkeley wit, defiance, insight, mania, obsession, and delusion ...

My Life, My Times

"an 11‐minute slide show from a young lifetime of snapshots made by Lenny Lipton, featuring family, girlfriends, and various big‐city scenic eyesores—all accompanied by music like “Listen to the Mockingbird,” “There's a Tavern in the Town,” and a Stephen Foster medley. The film must have taken equal parts of affection and chutzpah, and it is perhaps too private really to deserve (or require) a public." - New York Times, Nov. 12th 1971

Far Out, Star Route

One summer, in a run-down mansion, friends of Lenny Lipton come to take in the sun, the woods, swimming and some drugs. A wedding is held in the fields. People talk and are happy. Dogs and children play. Nancy, a vegetarian, becomes alarmed when two fish are seen flapping helplessly in the kitchen sink. She rushes them back to the stream where they were caught-but cannot revive them . Lenny Lipton films it all - amidst controversy over whether his filming is getting people uptight and altering the "reality" of what is happening. Fortunately, he continues his journal and gives us a warm record of people enjoying themselves, the land, and the company of others . FAR OUT, STAR ROUTE is one of those rare films which shows that the beauty of life can be felt and shared through the full experience of that which is simplest and most human.

People

The Red Mountain Tribe hangs out in my backyard. "Lipton's lovely home movie PEOPLE, in its affection for valuable inconsequential gestures, indicates in the course of its three minutes why there has to be a continuing alternative to the commercial cinema." – Roger Greenspun, The New York Times

Doggie Diner and Return of Doggie Diner

A minimalist homage to a now-defunct local eatery.

Edith Kramer at Canyon Cinema

Home movie footage of the then-director Edith Kramer and others in the San Francisco offices of Canyon Cinema

Let a Thousand Parks Bloom

A film about the building of People's Park, and its ultimate destruction, marking the end of an era.

Powerman

An homage to the superhero. The song "Powerman" is performed by Rogue Streib's East Bay Symphony, with the filmmaker singing lead.

We Shall March Again

The 1965 Vietnam Day Peace March, remembered for the Hell's Angels' attack. Vividly depicted. Provides a valuable historical perspective on the period, filmed by a partisan. Exhibition: SF Int'l Film Festival; NET; Italian TV; Cinematheque Française. Collection: Pacific Film Archive