Weaving Two Worlds
14:38 minutes Short film,
Produced by Whirl Wind Productions, 2008.
Weaving Two Worlds covers the epic life of Jan Yoors (1922-1977). Pulled from the Yoors family archive, including edits from previous interviews, film and contemporary interviews with Jans widow Marianne and son Kore. It talks about Jans childhood and his travels with the Rom and continues into WWII, Post war England and onto New York City where Jan continues to create a successful career as an artist and writer. It is a concise film that tells much about Jan’s career, relationships and adventures. This film is the best way to get an overview of Jan’s life which can help orient the viewer to navigate this website and understand the lives and artworks within.
Jan Yoors
29 minutes
By Cynthia Hoy, 1983.
This was an NYU thesis project, undertaken six years after Jan had died.
Completely filmed on location at the artist’s home and studio in Greenwich Village. It is a visual montage of art works interwoven with interviews with Jans two widows Annabert and Marianne. There is one section devoted to the process of weaving as they set up the warp on their eighteen-foot wide loom in preparation for a new project.
“A Gypsy for Our Time”
By Adam Hochschild
Mother Jones Magazine
Feb/March 1978
“A Gypsy for Our Time” is an article about Jan that weaves together his life with the Gypsies, their customs, and how Jan bridges these understandings within his life in New York City. It is a rich article filled with lots of hidden insights into the philosophy of the gypsy culture in Europe and around the world.
A Fleming in New York
40:38 minutes
VRT 1974.
A Belgium Radio and Televisions documentary from 1974, made on the occasion of the Jan Yoors Retrospective in Gent, Belgium. Besides the introduction, which is in English by the art critic Robert Hughes, the film continues in Flemish.
This documentary shows a glimpse into the artist’s home and working process, captured just two years before his death in 1977. And contains rare interviews with Jan discussing his inspirations and motivations for being an artist.
In the future we hope to add subtitles to this film.
“The Wild Goose”
By Andrew St. George
Argosy Magazine
November 1956
Andrew St. George was a colorful personality, a journalist and a Magnum photographer of Hungarian descent, who during WWII worked for Army intelligence and was involved with Raoul Wallenberg the Swedish diplomat in the Resistance to Nazi Germany. In 1957 St. George went to Cuba and befriended Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and documented the Cuban revolution.
The Wild Goose article is a cinematic description of Jan and the Romani involvement in the Resistance and Jan’s final escape across the Pyrenees into Spain.
