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Orphans at Twenty Dan Streible Orphans 2020 is nigh (and its call for proposals now open).   At the moment, however, 20 also reminds me that September 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the Orphan Film Symposium.  The milestone prompts me to recall the experience of the first event now often called simply “Orphans.”  Some veterans of the 1999 gathering recently sent thoughts about it. September 22 through 25, 1999, the University of South Carolina in Columbia hosted a high-spirited group of symposiasts and attendees for a one-time only event we called Orphans of the Storm: Saving ‘Orphan Films’ in the

[Read on. . . . ] Twenty

With the 2020 Orphan Film Symposium being devoted to Water, Climate, and Migration, the Global Climate Strikes on the Fridays of September 20 & 27, 2019 are of course relevant to how we are now conceiving of audiovisual recordings of these phenomena.  The 1929 Fox Movietone News outtakes catalogued as If the Antarctic Icecaps Should Melt?  connect neglect media artifacts to the global moment in a potent and uncanny way. Here’s a sample of the 10 minutes.  The University of South Carolina MIRC DVR provides the original Fox librarian’s notation:  “‘Scientists say gigantic frozen sea at South Pole could flood

[Read on. . . . ] Climate strikes back.

Call for Proposals The first deadline for proposals to present at the May 23-27, 2020 Orphan Film Symposium in Amsterdam was November 19th. The call for proposals remains posted here and at eyefilm.nl/call-for-proposals. We may consider proposals that arrive after that date, but the program committee is now reviewing proposals. The 12th Orphan Film Symposium — Water, Climate, & Migration — hosted by the 6th Eye International Conference 23-27 May 2020 The biennial NYU Orphan Film Symposium returns to Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, 23-27 May 2020, combining forces with the annual Eye International Conference to explore contemporary archival and academic

[Read on. . . . ] CFP for Orphans 2020

As we look to the May 2020 Orphan Film Symposium, devoted to Water, Climate, and Migration, I think of the first symposium 20 years ago, when the first presenter was a geologist. Conceptions of preservation begin with where stuff is stored; often the answer is underground.  Water, climate, and migration. Each of these intertwined topics is of course highly topical and attracting urgent attention, but they have always been important subjects.. In conceiving of this symposium we have not used the significant word Anthropocene, but it now haunts our thoughts about historical audiovisual recordings of planet Earth, its physical and

[Read on. . . . ] Underground

Orphan films in China?  Many, of course! So at last the Orphan Film Symposium visits China.   Xiamen University invited me to talk about the symposium-as-festival (“Screening Orphan Films: Why and How?”) and to screen a sample of shorts at the two-part conference on festivals and archives. Most of the other works presented here also fit within the orphan rubric. We saw a variety of previously neglected, forgotten, obscure, seldom-seen, or undistributed titles: ethnographic films, a found-footage remix, video art appropriation, a propaganda drama about comradeship among Chinese and North Korean soldiers during the Korean War, home movies from Taiwan,

[Read on. . . . ] Orphan films, Xiamen University

“Save the dates!”  

Here’s the official program. Registration is open to all.  Click here to join an international gathering of archivists, curators, scholars, artists, and others dedicated to saving, studying, and screening radically diverse types of neglected works.    RADICALS:  a special edition of the NYU Orphan Film Symposium at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, June 6-8, 2019 Thursday, June 6 15:00 to 21:00 Registration at Filmmuseum (Augustinerstraße 1) 19:00  Movements, a program in the film series “There are no rules!” Restored and Revisited Avant-Garde Films from the Netherlands. Introduced by curator Simona Monizza (EYE Netherlands Film Museum) 20:30 Symposium reception party

[Read on. . . . ] Orphans | RADICALS | The Program

October 18, 2018: Now that the two screenings are done, I’ve updated the filmography and comments for the record. At the conclusion of the October 15 show, Film Forum announced this screening would turn into a semi-annual series. “Orphans of New York.” That’s what Bruce Goldstein, Director of Repertory Programming at New York’s influential* nonprofit indie moviehouse Film Forum, entitles our show of 22 entertaining but previously neglected films shot around the city from 1899 to 1979. Tickets are available online at or at the box office. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. Sunday, Oct. 14, 3:10 pm Monday, Oct.

[Read on. . . . ] Film Forum NYC presents “Orphans of New York,” Oct. 14 & 15

“Orphans of New York” at Film Forum, NYC (209 W. Houston St.)   Sunday, Oct. 14, 3:10 pm repeats Monday, Oct. 15, 7:00 pm Memorable shorts shot in New York City, 1899 to 1979. Introductions by Bruce Goldstein (Film Forum) & Dan Streible (NYU Cinema Studies) + special guests Piano accompaniment for silent films by Steve Sterner See little-known films such as these: * New York University (ca. 1960) Willard Van Dyke   Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, new scans:  * New Brooklyn to New York Via Brooklyn Bridge no. 1 (1899) Edison Co. * The Deceived Slumming Party (1908) Biograph

[Read on. . . . ] Orphans of New York, Oct. 14 & 15

The latest NYU Orphan Film Symposium has wrapped — and the love buzz was lively throughout. Here’s the first of many photos to come, taken at Wednesday’s opening reception, April 11, 2018, at Museum of the Moving Image. Shane and Craig. April 11, 2014. Right:  Craig Shemin of the Jim Henson Legacy, who that evening presented dozens of pieces from the Henson archive — ads, outtakes, sponsored films, experiments, tests, and the restored Time Piece (1965). Unbeknownst to NYU Orphans, Craig met Shane 4 years ago when TCM selected them as two of the “Ultimate Fans.” They appeared on TCM as guest programmers during

[Read on. . . . ] Symposiasts 13 to 95

Kathleen Maguire, from the Exploratorium, introduced the audience to Laserimage, a film in which laser technology and music came together to create a work of abstract cinema. Although its maker Ivan Dryer considered it a failure, Laserimage was used to develop the light show he called Laserium, which became a pop culture sensation.

About the presenters at Orphans 11 Lina Accurso is an independent silent film historian who has been working to set a memorial headstone at the unmarked grave of Mrs. Alice B. Russell Micheaux in 2018. Brendan Allen manages the Archives for Democracy Now! He attended the School of Visual Arts and received a BA in English Literature and Media Studies from the University of New Mexico. He worked as a video librarian for Black Entertainment Television in 1998 and then moved to the Public Broadcasting Service in Alexandria, Virginia, where he worked as the library media coordinator. In 2006, Brendan

[Read on. . . . ] Bios

This just went out to everyone registered to attend the Orphan Film Symposium on Love.  Gentle colleagues:  A first greeting and informational note to everyone registered for the NYU Orphan Film Symposium at Museum of the Moving Image, April 11-14. An exciting week of Love ahead! The dates and times on the Orphans 11 booklet (attached) match what is published at NYU.edu/orphanfilm. Enter MoMI at  36-01 35 Ave. (at 37 Street) in Astoria, Queens. All symposium events are in the museum, with the exception of Thursday’s catered dinner (6pm at nearby Zenon Taverna). You will also get a separate email

[Read on. . . . ] Love ahead! Part 1

When Brigitte Paulowitz of Lichtspiel / Kinemathek (Bern, Switzerland) films from the Richard Ernst Collection of 17.5mm and 35mm Family Films, 1914-1932, we’ll see thirty minutes of sophisticated home movies.  And one show-at-home film the grandfather bought, a French travelogue of the Philippines.  She tells us that the English translation of the intertitles in Aux îles Philippines (Pathé, 1914) are:    T1:The ferryman   T2: Banks of the river Pasig   T3: Return from the market   T4: Hemp being the principal industry in the Philippines, the ropemakers are numerous   T5: Laundry   T6: Bathing children Although we won’t get

[Read on. . . . ] Lichtspiel • Ernst • 17.5

The Orphan Film Symposium begins Wednesday evening, April 11. During that same morning Terri Francis and Lina Accurso have organized this significant event in nearby Rye, New York.  They will also talk about the Alice B. Russell Micheaux project on Saturday, April 14, 9:30am, as part of the Orphan Film Symposium at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, NYC.  They will be joined by film historian Charlene Regester of the University of North Carolina. Terri shares the news below and invites you to this special event. Honoring Mrs. Alice B. Russell Micheaux from the website of Indiana University Black Film

[Read on. . . . ] Honoring Mrs. Alice B. Russell Micheaux

Notes by Dan Streible As we are about to celebrate and screen amateur films from around the world at the Orphan Film Symposium on Love, today Thomas Novotney of Novo Digital Media posted this found compilation of leaders made by the Amateur Cinema League during its run (1926-1954).  And here’s a piece I wrote in 2014, inspired by all the ACL leaders appearing on my radar at the time the Museum of Modern Art host an Orphan Film screening we called “An Amateur Cinema League of Nations”  A session of the same title appears, with all new content, at the

[Read on. . . . ] Leaders in the ACL

NYU Cinema Studies presents the 11th Orphan Film Symposium, April 11 – 14, 2018  Museum of the Moving Image Theme: Love.  Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 pm Reception for registered symposiasts Wednesday, 8:00 pm Opening Screening Becca Bender (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts / NYU MIAP) Discovering the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Collection: Elsa and Albert Einstein visit Hollywood (1931) and the Home Movies of the Co-inventor of Kodachrome Frannie Trempe (NYU MIAP) World Conference of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (1926) Karen Falk (The Jim Henson Company) & Craig Shemin (The Jim Henson Legacy) The Idea Man: Early Films of Jim Henson, including the

[Read on. . . . ] Full schedule