Notes by Robert Joseph Schneider
One of the greatest powers of film is the ability to transpose an individual into whatever they’re watching. Roger Ebert famously referred to movies as an “empathy machine,” but I’m most focused on their ability to transport us through time and place. Ethnographic and nonfiction films are one of the best examples of this. Many of us will never go to the Arctic but through the work of Robert Flaherty we may be able to feel as though we have. A number of such films will transport us during the 11th Orphan Film Symposium. Dozens of archivists, collectors, distributors, filmmakers, preservationists, students, and scholars will be in attendance and some 80 of them presenting rare films.
In addition to archival films, the symposium includes brand new productions that use historical material. Among them, Mating Games (2018) by Courtney Stephens (Veggie Cloud LA) and KJ Relth (by day, a film programmer at the UCLA Film & Television Archive) shows us the fantastical experience of Muscle Beach in the 1950s and 60s. Mating Games is filled with acrobatic body builders and gymnasts whose feats still bring a thrill, transporting us to Santa Monica, California, circa 1963.
Stephens and Relth’s short assembles home movies shot in 16mm and 8mm by Russell M. Saunders during the early 1960s and sets them to the era’s surf music. Although his name might be unfamiliar, chances are good you have seen his body in any number of classic Hollywood films. Saunders was born in Manitoba, Canada in 1919 and served in the Armed Forces Aquacade as a diver during World War II. He became a Hollywood stuntman and double, working with luminaries such as Hitchcock, DeMille, Kubrick, Gene Kelly, and George Stevens. His notable physical strength and talent as an acrobat was translated into his time as a star performer at Muscle Beach. There he shot a considerable amount of his footage. He worked with his longtime performing partner Paula Boelsems for fifty years. The two were the first two American judges accredited by the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics in 1975. He passed away in 2001 and in 2005 Boelsems donated his collection to the University of Southern California’s Doheny Library. The collection consists of nearly 100 reels of 16mm film (around 10,000 feet) and over 100 reels of 8mm film. Find the Finding Aid here; and the USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive’s guide to the 16mm films collected as Russell M. Saunders Muscle Beach Acrobatics (1954-1969) here.
For this debut screening, the filmmakers worked with archivist Dino Everett, who made new high-resolution scans of the original film prints. Filmmakers Courtney Stephens <@courtcolt> and KJ Relth <@relthingham> will be in attendance to present Mating Games on Saturday night, April 14.
Come, be transported.
The 11th Orphan Film Symposium takes place April 11 through 14, 2018 at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York.