The May 23-26, 2020, Orphan Film Symposium / Eye Academic Conference, features 68mm Mutoscope & Biograph restorations (in 8K), presented by Frank Roumen and Giovanna Fossati (Eye), Katie Trainor(Museum of Modern Art NYC), and Simon Lund (Cineric). The curated selection of films relate to the symposium's themes of Water, Climate, and Migration. Also a newly scanned 68mm paper print (rarest of animals) from the Library of Congress, thanks to Cineric and LOC generosity to the NYU Orphan Film Symposium. Dedicated to the late film historian and archivist Paul Spehr.
Read the rich program of films and speakers -- and register to join us in Amsterdam.
Also, read my new blog post about 68mm Mutosope & Biograph films, particularly the original phantom ride film, The Haverstraw Tunnel (American Mutoscope Co., 1897). Although it caused a popular sensation, was often imitated, and inspired film historians and theorists from 1983 onward, the short film (less than 2 minutes) remains rarely seen. Why?
The post, "68mm 8K Phantoms," was sparked by this rare reference to the Haverstraw film in later trade press. "This writer has been viewing film since the Lumiere babies, the Haverstraw Tunnel and the Empire State Express were the screen stars. . . ." Epes W. Sargent, Moving Picture World, Oct. 16, 1920.
The closest thing we see of The Haverstraw Tunnel on the web at the moment are frames from the Biograph catalog, as reprinted in Charles Musser's essential history The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907, published in 1990.
Dan Streible (New York University) @Orphan_Films
Blog of the NYU Orphan Film Symposium (c) 2020.
The symposium is a biennial production of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Cinema Studies
