by guest blogger Adrienne Henry
Over the course of the
last several months NYU MIAP and Cinema Studies students have been helping to produce
the 8th edition of the biannual Orphan Film Symposium. Orphans 8:
Made to Persuade took place at Museum of the Moving Image, April 11 through 14. Although Orphans has begun holding smaller events between
symposiums, the biannual event is the highlight of the Orphans organization and
brings together activists, archivists, scholars and media artists from around
the world for four days of screenings, presentations and good conversation
about all forms of neglected media.
The opening night of
the symposium was produced by graduating NYU MIAP student Benedict Salazar
Olgado, and featured an opening cocktail hour before what was quite possibly
the first ever U.S. screening of Valy Arnheim’s Die
Hochbahnkatastrophe (The Elevated Train Catastrophe). The 1921 German
sensationsfilm was given a wonderful introduction by Tom Gunning who explained
its roots in nineteenth century adventure novels, but the real treat was
the screening itself. Viewing this ninety-one year old film projected in MOMI’s
261 seat theatre with live narrator Harrison M. Beck and Dennis James accompanying the film on piano was simply a once in a life time
experience.
As wonderful as opening night was, it was Thursday's programing that
I found most compelling. Thursday morning had some great panels including a
history of the MOMI building (once an army film studio creating
wartime propaganda) and an advertising panel which was much talked about
throughout the rest of the symposium. The advertising panel truly highlighted
the symposium's theme of “Made to Persuade” and featured presentations on such persuasive tactics as Afri-Cola’s 1968 appeal to the strangely sensual (via artist Charles Wilp's ad campaign on German television) and
Sugar Crisps’ use of the super hip Sugar Bear to appeal to the children.
Thursday afternoon’s programming started strong with Nell Cox’s 1969
AT&T recruiting film Operator, featuring a theme song by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, a parade of
beautiful young phone operators, and plenty of humorous moments between
operators and callers (some real; some staged by actors). The film was so engaging that by the time I’d returned
home from the symposium several links to it had popped up on my Facebook
newsfeed via my fellow orphanistas. It was hard to believe anything else in the
panel would blow me away more than Operator did, but the sequence of Lillian
Schwartz films made at Bell Labs in the early 1970s definitely did. Schwartz made these 16mm short films using scientific
equations, lots of color and movement, and some of the earliest melding
of film and electronic music. Viewing the films was an experience words cannot
describe. The dinner that followed was abuzz with discussions of the films and
the honor of hearing Lillian discuss them.
The return from dinner marked the Helen Hill Award portion of Orphans 8, produced by NYU Cinema Studies students Ivria Dubs and myself. The
night honored the late DIY filmmaker Helen Hill with films that continue in her animation tradition, starting with a 70mm film by Danielle Ash and Jodie Mack. The duo (who shared Helen Hill Award honors in 2010) described their untitled work as
having been made by both “constructive and destructive” methods. The evening continued with a camera
test made by Helen herself and preserved by the Center for Home Movies. The test
footage Helen filmed of her infant son, cat, and New Orleans home was
intimate and heart wrenching. After learning more about Helen’s legacy, Jo Dery
and Jeanne Liotta were presented with Orphans 8 Helen Hill Awards. Several
of their pieces were showcased. Dery’s animations and mixed-media works often feature animals prominently, as was the case with Echoes of Bats and Men and is whimsical with a touch of melancholy. Liotta’s
sequence started with Blue Moon (1988) the
first film she ever made. NYU’s MIAP program recently finished
restoring the Super 8 film and its audiocassette soundtrack. While it differed greatly from her recent work, which leans heavily
towards the scientific it was extremely interesting to see her evolution as a
film maker.
The final film of the evening was The Florestine Collection, started by Hill before her passing in 2007 and recently finished by her husband Paul Gailiunas. The film begins as an exploration of a
collection of dresses Hill found in the street in New Orleans but evolves into
an ode to Helen, the amazing artist and activist. An emotional end to the day's programming.
Overall the
symposium presented a chance to see media artifacts that few have the chance to see, projected in a beautiful space surrounded by
passionate cinephiles from diverse backgrounds and professions. If you weren’t fortunate enough
to attend the event I highly recommend trying to get your hands on the forthcoming Orphans 8 DVD, which will feature several of the titles shown at the
symposium. You should also go ahead and book your plane tickets for Orphans 9,
but until then you can curve your Orphans cravings by checking out more
coverage of the event at the links bellow.
