SAVANNAH, Ga. () – A film and television educator is remembering the offbeat and endearing legacy of filmmaker David Lynch.

The iconic “Twin Peaks” director, who died this week at age 78, had a flair for the dreamlike, the disturbing and the daring.

Filmmakers and movie lovers alike are remembering the peculiar but endearing artist, including Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Film & Television Professor Michael Chaney.

“David Lynch lifts the veil on hidden places for me,” said Chaney. “He invites us into these worlds that we don’t inhabit, but yet at the same time they also seem really familiar. And these are places that I’m not sure I wanna visit, but I’m glad I can visit for an hour and a half, or two hours.”

Lynch’s films, among them “The Elephant Man” and “Mulholland Drive” have been hailed as bold and unconventional. Why does Professor Chaney think that their abstract nature resonated with a mass audience?

“Too often I think films either are going to lecture us or they’re going to be inaccessible,” Chaney said. “Being too cool or too weird. I think with David Lynch’s work, even the weirdest stuff that he’s done, I feel invited to be there. I feel like I belong there, even though the stuff seems really far out at times.”

Chaney recalls his first Lynch film being “Blue Velvet”, but it was the 1977 surrealist classic “Eraserhead” that “changed everything”. He has since been a lifelong fan.

In the wake of Lynch’s passing, young creatives took to social media to remember a man they revered.

Chaney explained why he felt Lynch’s work has such an impact on budding artists.

“I think when young filmmakers see an established filmmaker,” Chaney said, “they realize that he didn’t just appear in a void with all this wonderful work. He got his beginning as a young person taking risk. And maybe, perhaps they too can have an opportunity to take some creative risk and try some new things on. As a young artist, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”

The death of David Lynch leaves Chaney mourning both the man and the loss of his singular artistic touch.

“When I heard the news,” Chaney said. “I thought, well, this stinks because we’re not going to get any new David Lynch work. You know, we’re we’re done with what we’ve got here[…]at the same time, it made me greatly appreciate the fact that this is a filmmaker who marched to the beat of his own drum while at the same time making that work accessible and inviting us in to experience these worlds with him.”