“You are an archive”: June Givanni’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to Cinema’ by Alexa Efune (NYU Cinema Studies) On February 18th, the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) duly endowed long-time Black film archivist and programmer June Givanni with BAFTA’s “Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema” award. The award marks the first official recognition of Givanni’s critical archival work by an English film institution. Givanni’s labor collecting, preserving, studying, and exhibiting material relating to Black British and Afro-Diasporic cinema dates back over 40 years. In 1981, Givanni assisted in executing the Third Eye World Cinema Film Festival in London. At the end of the
Florencia in Cualác
Florencia Müller in Cualác, Guerrero by José Solé (NYU MIAP) On April 12, the Orphan Film Symposium session called Fieldwork: Excavation and Extraction includes the presentation “Florencia en Cualác” by Tania López Espinal (Cineteca Nacional de México) & Mariana Hernández Blanca (Salvamento Arqueológico Tren Maya). They will screen the newly preserved film Cualác, Cueva Ostocama (1951) and discuss an important figure in archeology whose work is documented in the footage, Florencia Müller (1903-1984). Mexico has 49,347 registered archaeological sites across a wide range of environments, with varied antiquity and diverse cultural origins. These cataloged sites represent only a fraction of
Saturday: Work & Play
And what Work & Play on the final day? and the closing night? Not just work but labor: women on the assembly line, union organizing, a May Day parade, inventors, sex-workers, sound mixers, and hot-metal typesetters. Play abounds in the love of amateurs, shenanigans in a film studio, skateboarding, queer comedy, dancing, painting, children improvising play in the streets of Harlem and woods of Oregon. And music. Lots of music. Worlds recorded across nine decades. SATURDAY, April 13 10am Workers of the World Aurore Spiers (U Chicago) Women Workers in the Media Archive: French Automobile Factory Films, 1914–1925 Jacob Perlin
Friday, April 12: Work & Play at MoMI
The roll-out continues. What’s happening in Astoria? Friday, April 12. Here’s the rundown for the NYU Orphan Film Symposium, Work & Play, at Museum of the Moving Image. Registration is open to all. FRIDAY, April 12 9:30 am Making Children Work; Teens Making Work Sophia Gräfe (Humboldt-University Berlin) & Carolin Pommert (Charité Berlin) Making Children Work: Medical Films from East Germany. Musikerziehung in der Kinderkrippe (1980), Die psychologische Führung des Kindes im Krankenhaus (1976) Katerina Kampoli (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) The Centre Familial De Jeunes de Vitry Films, 1966-1983. Et après (And Then, 1969) 11:20 am
The Thursday line-up
The roll-out continues! Here’s the simple-text version of the first full da of the NYU Orphan Film Symposium, Work & Play, April 10 through 13, 2024, at Museum of the Moving Image. We begin Wednesday evening with screenings from Argentina, including the North American premiere of La vida a oscuras (2023), Enrique Bellande‘s profile of film collector Fernando Martin Peña. Registration is now open to all. Day two is filled with diverse screenings by 25 presenters: newly-discovered films by Roman Vishniac; Nintendo arcade games with 16mm film loops; a psychedelic game for PlayStation1; Japanese “paper films”; amateur films from Canada,
Register. The (almost) full program.
Save the date, as they say. Click here to register for the fourteenth biennial NYU Orphan Film Symposium. We convene April 10-13, 2024, at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, NYC. Our theme: Work & Play. How have orphan works documented and envisioned these subjects throughout the history of moving images? Once again archivists, scholars, artists, curators, and others will convene to screen and discuss a plethora of preserved audiovisual works. Registration is open to all. The symposium begins Wednesday evening, April 10, with a 7pm reception and 8pm screening. April 11, 12, and 13, sessions all day, with
REGISTER 2024
Welcome! Here’s the link to the page where you can register and make e-payment for the April 10-13, 2024 symposium. Registration fee (unchanged since 1999): $250 (USD). Students and underemployed persons, $125. Registration includes access to all symposium events, beginning Wednesday, April 10 ( 7pm reception, 8pm screening); catered lunches and coffee/tea breaks April 11, 12, and 13; closing dinner and drink at MoMI on Saturday 8pm; and (we hope) dinner on Thursday. (Friday is “dinner on your own.”) Also an Orphans 2024 T-shirt, printed program, and goodies TBA. Day rates are available for those who would like to attend
Argentina Redux, Orphans 2024
Rollout of the April 10-13 program continues: two presenters will add to the symposium’s continuing attention to films from Argentina. Renowned film collector, historian, educator, programmer, TV host, and raconteur Fernando Martín Peña will join us for the NYU Orphan Film Symposium. On opening night we will screen Enrique Bellande’s La vida a oscuras (Life in the Dark, Argentina, 2023, 74 min.), a profile of Peña. Recorded throughout seven years, we see his daily life in Buenos Aires: in the self-designed home/tower where he stores his library of 8,000 prints; teaching (and projecting) at the national film school; in the
Orphans 2024: The Program (second part)
The roll-out continues with this second piece of the program for the NYU Orphan Film Symposium, April 10-13, 2024. Our meeting place: Museum of the Moving Image. Our theme: Work & Play. Adding to the 33 presenters announced in part 1, here’s 33 more archivists, scholars, artists, preservationists and curators who will present these rare, neglected, and preserved audiovisual works. (A few more will soon be announced in the third and final part.) But this mix of exciting films and speakers is reason enough to join us. Registration is open to all. Kimberly Tarr (NYU) premieres Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (David
The 2024 Helen Hill Award goes to Jeremy Rourke
Every other year, the Orphan Film Symposium confers its Helen Hill Award to an exceptional independent filmmaker whose work befits the late artist’s legacy, celebrating creativity, collaboration, animation, and things made by hand. This year we recognize media artist/animator/musician/performer Jeremy Rourke. Preview his work at jeremyrourke.com, his Vimeo page, and Instagram @jeremy.rourke. But his is a live cinema practice. As part of “Orphans 2024: Work & Play,” Rourke will screen his work and perform original music with the projections at Museum of the Moving Image, April 10-13. The NYU Orphan Film Symposium brings together an international audience of archivists, artists,
[Read on. . . . ] The 2024 Helen Hill Award goes to Jeremy Rourke
Fred Ott Sneezes, 130th anniversary
January 7, 2024: Happy 130th Fred Ott Day. January 7 because W. K. L. Dickson registered the title for copyright as Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7th, 1894. Below is an abbreviated version of last year’s post (“Fred Ott Sneezes, Twice”), which celebrated the 2023 web debut of the full-length Sneeze movie. Happy January 7th! Two thousand twenty-three begins with a film premiere of sorts for Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7th, 1894. The day is an anniversary for the milestone of cinema commonly known as Fred Ott’s Sneeze. In 1894, Thomas Edison instructed W. K. L. Dickson
Orphans 2024: The Program (first part)
The NYU Orphan Film Symposium convenes April 10-13, 2024, at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, NYC. Our theme: Work & Play. How have orphan works documented and envisioned these subjects throughout the history of moving images? Once again archivists, scholars, artists, curators, and others will convene to screen and discuss a plethora of preserved audiovisual works. Registration is open to all. Click here to register. The symposium begins Wednesday evening, April 10, with an opening reception at 7pm and 8pm screening. April 11, 12, and 13, sessions all day, with an 8pm screening each night. (That’s 26
Naomi Feil’s passing
Word from Ken Feil today that his mother, the great filmmaker (among other things) Naomi Feil, has passed away at age 91. Such a life and career! (This lede mirrors that of “Ed Feil’s Passing,” published here three years ago, upon the passing of Naomi’s partner and collaborator of 58 years.) The obituary her family published documents the richness of her long life. In 2016, I was privileged to meet the Feils at the Museum of Modern Art when they attended a festival screening of their masterpiece The Inner World of Aphasia, a 1968 medical education film. I’d first seen it
Sergei Prokofiev’s Holiday Movie Screening
Text by guest blogger Maria Vinogradova; artwork by Asja Dolgikh. Exactly 93 years ago, on December 29th, 1930, composer Sergei Prokofie wrote in his diary: We are having a holiday party: both children and grown-ups. Among the latter is the old lady Meindorff whom I drove in and back by car. The old lady is wonderful, fresh – found something to talk about with everyone. I ran the cinematograph with our summer movies, which had greater success than the ones we rented. Exactly four descriptions of those “summer movies” survive in Prokofiev’s diary (or its published part, which is known
[Read on. . . . ] Sergei Prokofiev’s Holiday Movie Screening
Patty Zimmermann
Hollywood films are the home movies of global capital. — Patricia Zimmermann. An apt epigraph, which in fact it was for Paul Cullum’s report on the second Orphan Film Symposium, “Orphanistas!” L.A. Weekly, April 18, 2004. To give an example of Patty Zimmermann’s work, her passions, political advocacy, and indeed her personal presence, below is a video excerpt of her talk at last year’s Orphan Film Symposium. Since the unexpected passing of Patty Zimmermann on August 18th at age 68, we’ve seen an outpouring of lengthy testimonials from the many people whose lives she touched, whose
Helen Hill Award applications
Update June 2025: Information about applications for the 2026 Helen Hill Award will post here after July 1, 2025. Submissions due Oct. 15, 2025. The 2026 symposium will be at the Wexner for the Arts, The Ohio State University in Columbus, O. Dates: April 8-11, 2026. The award recipient will attend the symposium in person and collaborate with organizers on the form and content of the presentation of their work. Travel and accommodations paid by NYU Orphans. ————————————– Filmmakers! Apply for the 2024 Helen Hill Award! The Orphan Film Symposium invites independent filmmakers to apply now for its 2024 Helen
Work & Play in 2024 (submit by Oct. 16)
The 2024 NYU Orphan Film Symposium convenes April 10-13, 2024, at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NYC. Presenters will be selected from proposals to this open call. Submit by October 16, 2023. Theme: Work & Play We invite proposals for presentations that respond to the theme(s) of work and/or play, broadly considered. How have orphan films (neglected audiovisual media) recorded, represented, influenced, and imagined these subjects throughout the history of moving images? Conceptions of work might include: labor, industry, class, jobs, occupations, production, productivity (and failure), automation, technologies, performance; people, animals, machines, and
Return to Astoria: 2024
Announcing . . . a return to NYC and our every-six-years home at MoMI. The 14th Orphan Film Symposium will be in New York, April 10-13, 2024. The NYU Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies and Tisch School of the Arts again join with Museum of the Moving Image to host this international gathering. Mark your calendar and join us. <movingimage.us> + <tisch.nyu.edu/cinema-studies> = <orphan.film> In 2012 and 2018 the symposium convened at MoMI in Astoria, Queens, for memorable events: Orphans 8, Made to Persuade, and Orphans 11, Love. Scholars, archivists, artists, curators, preservationists, and other advocates for studying, saving,
DCP, Orphans TV
It’s April 21, 2023. Time to begin the Orphan Film Symposium: All-Television at UCLA. The UCLA Film & Television Archive team put together this Digital Cinema Package of objects born on videotapes and films. John H. Mitchell Television Curator (Mark Quigley!) sent this photo of the DCP today. The symposium originated as a film preservation event, but it’s always incorporated television (and video, audio, and digital). The 1999 event included this panel: Television and Video Preservation • Linda Tadic (then director of the U of Georgia Media Archive and Peabody Awards Collection, and president of AMIA) “Archiving Local TV Stations” • Steve Davidson
