Among the cinematic arcana on display May 13 and 14 at “Celebrating Orphan Films” are these.
Friday, May 13 – Sean Savage on Madison News Reel (ca. 1932)
Archivist Sean Savage will introduce Madison News Reel, a curious
and even mysterious found film. This 200 feet of nitrate film, found in a barn in Bristol, Maine, was nearly overlooked amid a pile of empty reels. No one knows who made this uncanny collage, which references citizens of Madison, Maine. We’ll be showing the 35mm print from Northeast Historic Film, where Savage formerly worked, and where he researched his NYU MIAP thesis, The Eye Beholds: Silent Era Industrial Films and the Bureau of Commercial Economics (2006).
Saturday, May 14 – Shelley Stamp on The Unshod Maiden (1932)
Shelly Stamp, Professor of Film & Digital Media at UC-Santa Cruz and expert on the work of Lois Weber, will present The Unshod Maiden, Universal’s sound-era parody of Weber’s 1916 film Shoes, also a Universal production. The film uses a male voiceover commentary to mock a re-edited and condensed version of Weber’s earnest plea for women’s
wage equity. Part of a wave of similar parodies, The Unshod Maiden also demonstrates Hollywood’s rapid disregard for silent cinema in the wake of recorded sound, and a broader disregard for Weber’s vision of politically-engaged popular cinema. We'll screen the 35mm print from the Library of Congress, which was essential to the restoration of Shoes, just completed by EYE Netherlands Film Institute. From The Unshod Maiden
Saturday, May 14 – Bill Brand on A Fire in My Belly (1986-87)
Preservationist Bill Brand of the award-winning BB Optics will
present a screening of this much discussed film, which he preserved for NYU's Fales Library. While the infamous four-minute video condensation of this title (recently created and then censored by the Smithsonian) has now been widely seen, Brand will present the longer, rarely screened 16mm preservation print of David Wojnarowicz’s Super 8 work-in-progress that reveals a film far more subtle and complex in its meaning and texture.
There’s only TWO WEEKS LEFT until “Celebrating Orphan Films” commences at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see an eclectic selection of unique and innovative films presented by experts in archiving, preservation and film scholarship.
40 films, 30 speakers, only 10 BUCKS!
Order tickets at www.tft.ucla.edu/calendar/screening/celebratingorphanfilm1.
