The 12th Orphan Film Symposium Water, Climate, & Migration May 26-29, 2020 Tuesday, May 26: WATER The Silent World https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/16/session1/ https://vimeo.com/429504288 Environmental Impact https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/17/impact/ https://vimeo.com/429875386 Water Tuesday screenings https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/17/watch3/ https://vimeo.com/429498250 Wednesday, May 27: CLIMATE Early German Images of the Anthropocene https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/18/german/ https://vimeo.com/430242631 Darkening Days https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/19/darkening/ https://vimeo.com/430561049 The Helen Hill Awards https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/20/helen/ https://vimeo.com/430926503 Super Super 8s: Films by Tatjana Ivančić https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/20/super8/ https://vimeo.com/431032937 Climate Wednesday screenings https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/21/climatewed/ https://vimeo.com/431071315 Thursday, May 28: MIGRATION Great Migrations https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/21/greatmigrations/ https://vimeo.com/431088477 Euro Migrations https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/22/euro/ https://vimeo.com/431339417 Migration Thursday screenings https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/23/migrations/ https://vimeo.com/431690134 A Clockface Orange performs Deliquescence https://wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2020/06/24/clockface/ https://vimeo.com/432042400 Friday, May 29: Never Lost But Found in the Ocean:
Category: Water
Postscript to An Atlantic Voyage as Bon Voyage
A postscript to the post about Anke Mebold’s screening of An Atlantic Voyage, the multicolored, silent-era compilation of travelogues from the early twentieth century, produced by ?? in the year ??. The Orphans Online program listing calls this stand-alone segment Envoi & Bon Voyage! An excited sentiment that required the rare exclamation point. In addition to including a film literally about a ship carrying travelers on a touristic voyage, the session was a cheerful, celebratory ending to the four days of screenings and talks that characterize all the Orphan Film Symposiums heretofore. The term envoi is a rare one in English prose.
[Read on. . . . ] Postscript to An Atlantic Voyage as Bon Voyage
Watch: Bon Voyage, AN ATLANTIC VOYAGE (Orphans Online 10b of 10)
Streaming now: an HD recording of the final part of the final session of Orphans Online, May 29, 2020. Anke Mebold (DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum) introduces the puzzle/compilation film of uncertain date and origins. Original music composed and performed by Stephen Horne. 24 minutes. Click to enlarge, or watch at vimeo.com/432997996. The Mebold metadata on the DFF film: An Atlantic Voyage: Von Hamburg zu den Niagarafällen mit dem Schnelldampfer Kaiser Wilhelm II [From Hamburg to the Niagara Falls with the Express Steamer Kaiser Wilhelm II] (DE[?] 19?? / GB 1903[?] / FR 1906[?]); with footage from [?] Charles Urban
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: Bon Voyage, AN ATLANTIC VOYAGE (Orphans Online 10b of 10)
Postscript to Sunken Films and Lusitania
Here’s the full US NARA reel (4:26) excerpted in Bill Morrison’s Sunken Films, debuted at the 2020 Orphan Film Symposium. The NARA YouTube channel published this in 2015, with the assigned title S.S. Lusitania Leaves New York City on Last Voyage. No head title is on the film itself. The archival record does not identify the original source of the footage. NARA catalogs it as Historical Film, No. 1221. Who shot it? The paper work from the deposit of elements in 1936 is scanned into the catalog record. The War Department memoranda and Signal Corps Photo Lab records contain internal
Watch: Never Lost But Found in the Ocean (Orphans Online 10a of 10)
Now streaming in HD, this roundtable of artist, archivist, and scholars, with extensive audience discussion. 99 minutes. “Never Lost But Found in the Ocean: On Biographies of Film Copies.” Film historian Maria Vinogradova (NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia) conceived of the topic in collaboration with Bill Morrison, whose newest work is inspired by an unlikely recovery of celluloid from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Joining them are Peter Bagrov, curator at the George Eastman Museum; Joan Neuberger, Eisenstein scholar and professor of history, University of Texas at Austin; and moderator Marina Hassapopoulou from NYU Cinema Studies faculty. Click to enlarge or
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: Never Lost But Found in the Ocean (Orphans Online 10a of 10)
Watch: Thursday finale, A Clockface Orange (Orphans Online 9b of 10)
Now streaming, this HD recording of Deliquescence, a live multimedia performance by the artist known as A Clockface Orange (Genevieve HK & Rachael Guma, liquid-light projection) with Lea Bertucci (sound) and Bradley Eros (light). Their multilayered triptych also incorporate footage found in Prelinger Archives. The 14-minute piece is followed by discussion with the artists. Click to enlarge or watch at vimeo.com/432042400. A Clockface Orange:presents live liquid-light performances to accompany musicians, artists, and recordings of all genres. Its work showcases an appreciation for ephemeral, experiential art inspired partly by Fluxus and 1960s experimental culture, incorporating the use of liquids on glass to
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: Thursday finale, A Clockface Orange (Orphans Online 9b of 10)
Watch: Super Super 8s (Orphans Online 5b of 10)
Because it was too perfect of a match, this presentation about the films of Tatjana Ivančić was programmed adjacent to the Helen Hill Award session with Martha Colburn and Jaap Pieters. All the keywords were there for Orphans interests: Super 8 film, experimental, amateur, woman, cine club, new preservation, restoration (and Austrian Film Museum — host of a special Orphans 2019, Radicals). The title Super Super 8s alludes to filmmaker/scholar/curator Melinda Stone, an important influence on the “orphan film movement” (a term I heard for the first time when she spoke at Orphans 2 in 2001). Her Super Super 8
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: Super Super 8s (Orphans Online 5b of 10)
Watch: The Helen Hill Awards (Orphans Online 5a of 10)
Wanna cut to the chase? Watch the replay edition of the Helen Hill Awards portion of Orphans Online here. 52 minutes. For each Orphan Film Symposium, beginning in 2008, NYU Cinema Studies and the University of South Carolina Film and Media Studies Program celebrate independent filmmakers with the Helen Hill Awards. The announcement of Martha Colburn and Jaap Pieters receiving the 2020 award is here. Thanks to Eye Filmmuseum hosting (what was to have been) an Amsterdam symposium, experimental film curator Simona Monizza worked with both artists to select works to showcase, including two films restored by Eye. The live edition
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: The Helen Hill Awards (Orphans Online 5a of 10)
Listening to Ja’Tovia Gary and The Giverny Document
May 28, 2020: On the final evening of the Orphan Film Symposium, after a screening of her new film The Giverny Document (single channel) artist Ja’Tovia Gary joined in conversation with Terri Francis (Director of the Black Film Center/Archive, Indiana University). Watch the recording of their discussion (with the filmmaker in Dallas, the scholar in Bloomington) below. The Giverny Document remains in its festival run and is now also a three-screen museum installation, The Giverny Suite. These are also part of flesh that needs to be loved, a sculptural installation whose exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York was cut
[Read on. . . . ] Listening to Ja’Tovia Gary and The Giverny Document
Watch: Water Tuesday Screenings (Orphans Online 3 of 10)
Streaming now: an HD recording of the opening night’s live stream. 141 min. May 26, 2020: Keeping with the Orphan Film Symposium custom, evening sessions were devoted to longer films and shorter talks. For this Water Tuesday set, five films played in full, each with significant introduction and discussion. Four are replayed here. The spoken introduction to Samba Félix Ndiaye’s Aqua (Senegal, 1989) is also included, as the preservation of that film is now underway. Click to play full screen, or go to vimeo.com/429498250 For permission to stream these films we owe gratitude to: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: Water Tuesday Screenings (Orphans Online 3 of 10)
Watch: The Silent World (Orphans Online 1 of 10)
Streaming now: an HD recording of the opening livestream. 97 min. May 26: the first day of the Orphan Film Symposium on Water, Climate, and Migration was devoted to the water theme. Here’s Session 1. Editor Walter Forsberg removed some extraneous bits and abbreviated the screening of Wildlife Conservation Society’s Department of Tropical Research underwater footage of 1927-34. The symposium called this session The Silent World, featuring films from cinema’s “silent” era of the 1910s and 20s, but with original music, both traditional and experimental. The title also references Jacques Cousteau’s landmark documentary Le Monde du silence (1956, directed with Louis
[Read on. . . . ] Watch: The Silent World (Orphans Online 1 of 10)
Title Tiles
As a preview to the reposting of video recordings of the May 26-29 Orphans Online, we have these title cards (or tiles) designed by Valeria Kriletich (in Buenos Aires). Each pair will appear before the video segments being prepared by Walter Forsberg (in Mexico City). The new streaming video will free from the few technical glitches we experienced during the live event. Some films screened in May will necessarily be absent from the new HD files, to honor the filmmakers’ and archives’ agreements. The new video segments will indicate what has been removed, where to find it elsewhere, and often
Archives Day and Liberty
It’s International Archives Day. June 9, 1948: The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization convened a meeting of archivists who created the International Council on Archives. In 2007, ICA declared the 9th of June as International Archives Day, an occasion to raise awareness of the importance of these memory institutions. Although sometimes perceived as dead-letter offices or institutions where the Ark of the Covenant gets forgotten, archives are, advocates contend, essential for a healthy society. An ICA declaration of 2010 ends with this: “Open access to archives enriches our knowledge of human society, promotes democracy, protects citizens’ rights and
Bill Morrison’s Sunken Films
Created especially for the final session of Orphans Online, Bill Morrison‘s compilation Sunken Films (June 2020) appears here for the first time, updated after the May 29 panel “Never Lost But Found in the Ocean: On Biographies of Film Copies.” Film historian Maria Vinogradova conceived of the topic in collaboration with Morrison, whose newest work is inspired by an unlikely recovery of celluloid from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A recording of the original session will be posted here soon. Here’s the description of the May 29 session: Occasionally lost films are found. There are also found films never known
The Case of the Fishermen (1947)
Presenter Charles Musser shares his slide talk that preceded the Orphans Online screening of The Case of the Fishermen on May 26, 2020. The film is embedded below and can be viewed directly at vimeo.com/413840816. Digital access to this newly preserved film comes from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and its Pearl Bowser Collection. Thanks to NMAAHC archivist Blake McDowell. Charles Musser Rediscovering Another Lost Union Films Production: The Case of the Fishermen (1947) What might be called the Carl Marzani-Paul Robeson-Union Films Project has been underway for more than 20 years. It began when I stumbled across a
The Ways of Water (1971) a distinctive EB film shot by Les Blank
The Ways of Water (Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corp., 1971) 16mm, color, sound, 13 min. Cinematographer: Les Blank Provided with permission from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (c)1971 by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Thanks to Rachael Stoeltje, Director of Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive, the symposium was able to screen a high-quality digital copy of this exceptional work, made from a 16mm print from IU’s large collection of distribution prints of educational films. Film Digitization Specialist Carmel Curtis did the scanning. Further, due to Stoeltje’s work with Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., the rights holder granted permission to keep The Ways of Water streaming as part of
[Read on. . . . ] The Ways of Water (1971) a distinctive EB film shot by Les Blank
Harnessing Excess: Water in American Infrastructural Cinema of the 1930s
This research was originally paired with Bradley E. Reeves (Appalachian Media Archives) and his new compilation video, TVA: “Built for and Owned by the People” (2020). Harnessing Excess: Water in American Infrastructural Cinema of the 1930s by Joni Hayward Marcum In 1942 Educational Screen described the government-operated Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as “harnessing the water and reclaiming the land” of the region. Founded in 1933 as part of the New Deal policies, the TVA was founded as a public corporation. Shortly after the start of the great depression, there was little trust in private companies. Thus, the public utilities run
[Read on. . . . ] Harnessing Excess: Water in American Infrastructural Cinema of the 1930s
A Town on the Yangtze
Wan-go Weng’s A Town by the Yangtze (1951) by Jonah Volk (Columbia University Libraries) Wan-go H.C. Weng (also known as Weng Wango) is a Chinese-American filmmaker, writer, art historian and collector, poet, and master calligrapher. Born in 1918 in Shanghai, and still alive at the age of 101, he is the great-great-grandson of Weng Tonghe, a prominent 19th century Confucian scholar. Moving to the United States in 1938 to study engineering at Purdue University, Weng later studied art at the University of Wisconsin, and had a decades-long career producing educational and sponsored films. Widely respected in the world of Chinese
The Story of the CCC (193?)
The Story of the C.C.C. (produced no later than 1937), color/bw, sound. A documentary made by the Civilian Conservation Corps documenting life and work in several Massachusetts camps. The intertitle cards tell the story of the CCC from its inception to around 1937. Commentary by Stephen Slappe, Head of the Video & Sound Department at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon, for the Orphans 2020 Film Symposium. sslappe@gmail.com Here on the eve of the Orphan Film Symposium on Water, Climate, and Migration, artist and film collector Stephen Slappe sends this piece for the occasion. He shares thoughts about and
Aqua Senegal
An understated but apt opening title card. Today the happy news arrived confirming that Orphans 2020 has the privilege to offer viewers a first look at a newly preserved film from Senegal. Director Samba Félix Ndiaye‘s short called simply Aqua (1989) is a quiet, elegant work, structured with a subtle “little reveal” at the end. Shot outside of his home town of Dakar, the 12-minute documentary has no dialogue. When Ndiaye died in 2009, he was considered a major figure in African documentary. On Tuesday, May 26, as part of the 6 to 8 pm Orphans Online screening session, Bill