Orphans at MoMA
Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 (MLK Day) 6:30 pm
Museum of Modern Art (11 West 5rd Street, NYC)
To Save and Project: 16th International Festival of Film Preservation
Beloved Community:
Rarities of African American and LGBTQ Cinema—and More
highlights from the Orphan Film Symposium on Love
Piano accompaniment by Ben Model
Three American Beauties (Edison, 1906) 35mm, 1’
MoMA’s restoration of an original hand-colored print; directed by Edwin S. Porter and Wallace McCutcheon.
Museum of Modern Art
Welcome by Josh Siegel (MoMA)
Intro by Dan Streible (NYU Cinema Studies, Orphan Film Symposium)
Sarah Keller (U Mass Boston) introduces filmmaker Barbara Hammer and three of her earliest Super 8 films. 3’ each.
Contribution to Light (1968), Aldebaran Sees (1969), Death of a Marriage (1969)
Electronic Arts Intermix
Something Good—Negro Kiss (Selig Polyscope, 1898) 35mm, 1′
The film rediscovery of the year, from archivist Dino Everett (USC) and scholar Allyson Field (U of Chicago), who identifies this kiss between performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown as cinema’s earliest known depiction of black intimacy. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2018.
University of Southern California Hefner Moving Image Archive
Lan Linh Nguyen Hoai (NYU MIAP) introduces
Fee (Walther Barth, 1929) 8’
A charming, inventive, and intimate amateur film shot in Zschornewitz, Germany, in which Dr. Barth (an Agfa film engineer) and a companion pose for his 16mm camera amid a field of poppies near the world’s largest brown-coal-fired power station. One of 101 films in the Barth Collection, researched by Louisa Trott (University of Tennessee).
Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound
Juana Suárez (NYU MIAP) introduces
Leopold Godowsky Jr. home movies (1930s-40s) mosaic by Becca Bender, 4’
Becca Bender, while an NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation student, uncovered a cache of 150 reels of 16mm films in the Lincoln Center archive. She identified them as those of Leopold Godowsky Jr. (1900-1983), noted musician and co-inventor of the Kodachrome film process. With archivist Bonnie Marie Sauer, she reunited the collection with the estate. This mosaic shows Godowsky’s father (famed concert pianist) and wife Francis Gershwin (sister of George and Ira), as well as family friends Albert Einstein, Leon Trotsky, and Arturo Toscanini.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Archive
Bonnie Marie Sauer (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts) introduces
[Elsa & Albert Einstein at Warner Bros.- First National Studio](1931) 3’
A lone reel of 35mm nitrate film among the Godowsky material at Lincoln Center, this never-released footage was scanned by the Library of Congress and repatriated to the Einstein Archives. (Thanks also to Cineric lab and to archivist Roni Grosz.)
Albert Einstein Archives, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Brianna Jones (NYU MIAP) introduces
Martin Luther King on Voting (WIS-TV, 1966) 35mm blow-up from 16mm, 6’
On May 9, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in Kingstree, South Carolina, urging residents to “march on ballot boxes” in the upcoming election. Newsfilm outtakes from a Columbia television station, the 16mm original was preserved in 35mm by Monaco Film lab with audio restoration by Chace Audio for the Orphan Film Symposium.
University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections
Dan Streible introduces
Martin Luther King at Santa Rita [Peace Pickets, Original, fragment] (Leonard Henny, 1968) with Martin Luther King at Santa Rita (KPFA-FM, 1968) audio, 2′
For this screening only, a 16mm silent fragment from EYE is accompanied by non-synchronized audio recorded at the same place and time by KPFA radio. On January 14, 1968, Dr. King visited Joan Baez and others arrested for anti-war protests. He spoke to those keeping vigil outside. The film ends with David Harris (Baez’s husband) meeting King for the first time; KPFA captured their informal conversation at the same moment.
EYE Netherlands Film Museum & Pacifica Radio Archives
Introduction by John Klacsmann and Ina Archer
A People’s Playhouse (American Negro Theatre, 1944) 16mm, 5’
Ruby Dee is among those seen in this fundraising promotion for New York’s A.N.T. Jointly preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and Anthology Film Archives from an AFA print.
Anthology Film Archives
Claire Fox (NYU MIAP) introduces
Behind Every Good Man . . . (Nikolai Ursin, 1967) 16mm, 9’
This rediscovered independent short is a pioneering portrait of the everyday life of an African-American trans woman. Restored by the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
UCLA Film & Television Archive
Introduction by Ina Archer (NMAAHC) DCP, 31’
* Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux and the Church of God (Willie P. Johnson, 1940s-1950s)
* Cab Calloway home movies (1930s-1950s)
* Ella Fitzgerald on the television show Kreisler Bandstand (1951)
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Three American Beauties (Edison, 1906) 1’
This new digital restoration of a complete print includes the surprise ending.
National Library of Norway
The Orphan Film Symposium is a production of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Department of Cinema Studies. orphan.film