Footage Reinvented

Jerry Levitan was just 14 years old in 1969 and crazy about the Beatles. With just a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he not only successfully got into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto, Canada but also managed to interview him about what Lennon thought about peace. Lennon and his wife were doing their in-bed publicity for peace at the time. Levitan says on his website “So I skipped school and made my trek at 7:00 a.m. to a hotel I guessed he would stay in, went to the top floor, knocked on every door and woke a lot of disgruntled people. A cleaning lady asked, “Are you looking for the Beatle?” I said yes and she told me where he was. Kyoko, Yoko's daughter was lying on the floor, colouring in front of a suite. I knew I'd found him, barged in, and made myself at home. John laughed at the spectacle, and let me stay.”

Fast-forward 38 years, and that recorded interview has been made into a short movie called “I met the Walrus”. John Raskin, the Canadian director has taken six minutes from that soundtrack and added the visually riveting pen work of James Braithwaite coupled with the digital talent of Alex Kurina. The resulting short is in the animation style of the old Beatles film, Yellow Submarine. The film has been making the rounds at various film festivals and has earned various awards and nominations.

It has been almost 40 decades and yet, the anti-war Lennon's words about peace still make a powerful impact today.