Academy Conversations: The Cinematic Impact of PORTRAIT OF JASON

On May 10, I had one of the most powerful screening experiences of my life. No exaggeration. To open the third biennial "Orphans West" film symposium, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences assembled 5 speakers, 2 files (a DCP and an MOV, to be precise), and a first-rate tech team to present its new restoration of the 1967 film Portrait of Jason. As with the 2001 Orphan Film Symposium 35mm screening of Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977), as restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, I was expecting something great -- but again my expectations were surpassed. Again both the power of the movie and the quality of the restoration took be aback with their greatness.

The screen in the Linwood Dunn Theater is huge, particularly for a facility of fewer than 300 seats.

The seats were filled with an audience who knew this was going to be something special. Indeed it was. Elvis Mitchell, who moderated the post-screening discussion, was assigned the seat next to mine in the second row. About 20 minutes into Portrait of Jason, he got up and walked to the back of the auditorium. No, Elvis had not left the building to check his e-mail; he was retreating from the intensity of the movie. Jason Holliday (or Aaron Payne, by birth) is already a larger than life character, but Shirley Clarke's camera presents him in close ups, tighter close ups, and nothing ever more distant than a medium long shot. To escape the claustrophobic intensity, our moderator chose to view the rest of the movie from the back of the theater.

Compounding the emotional impact of the film's ending, was the addition of a short outtake, or more specifically an audio clip (on MOV). The movie's final moments are already painful to watch. While we watch Jason at the end of his all-night meltdown, we hear from off camera Shirley Clarke and her sometimes-companion, actor Carl Lee, beleaguering their on-camer subject. In this outtake, an even more sado-masochistic verbal exchange occurs. Shirley tells Jason that he once did something so terrible to her that it made her want to kill herself.  No one knows what the incident was.

If you can find a theatrical screening, don't wait for the Blu-Ray/DVD release. Portrait of Jason is currently running at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles.

Below, from AMPAS, is a 5-minute video, Academy Conversations: The Cinematic Impact of Portrait of Jason.


Elvis Mitchell moderates a discussion of Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason (1967) with Academy Documentary Branch governor and Oscar recipient Rob Epstein (Times of Harvey Milk), documentarian and Oscar recipient Jeffrey Friedman , (Common Threads), Clarke's assistant during the shooting of POJ Robert Fiore (also director of Pumping Iron and an NYU Tisch alum), and Milestone Films' Dennis Doros. Recorded during "The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films" on May 10, 2013 at the Linwood Dunn Theater.

Here's the view from Oscar's YouTube channel:




NYU and the Orphan Film Symposium thank the Academy for so generously hosting this event.
And thanks to Milestone for granting us a preview in advance of POJ's West Coast theatrical release.

Here's maestro Mark Quigley's note on the UCLA Film & Television Archive's participation in the the Orphan Film events at the Academy May 10 and 11.

http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/blogs/archive-blog/2013/05/09/archive-goes-orphans

"Takes in Strays"

The Los Angeles Times for May 8 features this piece on the Academy's orphan film events of May 10 and 11.  Love the phrase "takes in strays."  Writer Mark Olsen talked with filmmakers Penelope Spheeris and Jim Hoberman, as well as Milestone Film and Video's Dennis Doros and Randy Haberkamp, who runs the show at the Academy's film archive, its Herrick library, its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, and the forthcoming museum.

'The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films' takes in strays

        The festival at Linwood Dunn Theater includes 'Portrait of Jason' and other films that have been lost, overlooked or abandoned.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-academy-real-indies-orphan-films-20130509,0,5406338,full.story

Filmography for THE REAL INDIES, May 10+11

  QUESTION:  What's being projected at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater, May 10-11?  

ANSWER:

• A New Look for the Bell System (Saul Bass, 1969)
• A Place to Stand (Christopher Chapman, 1967)
• BUILDING THE HOLLYWOODLAND SIGN (Fox News, 1923)
• City Harvest (United Films / OWI, ca. 1943)
• Don’t Bank on Amerika (Peter Biskind, 1970) excerpt
• Exploratorium (Jon Boorstin, 1974)
• Felix Ferdinando and His Orchestra in “Musical MomentS” (Bristolphone, ca. 1929)
• female-narrated trailers, Packard Humanities Institute Collection (1960-70s)
• footage of Hollywood Gay Pride Parade (Pat Rocco, 1971)
• footage of Showley Brothers Candy Factory (San Diego, 1924) 
• Help! My Snowman’s Burning Down (Carson Davidson, 1964)
• Hey Mama (Vaughn Obern, 1969)
• home movie from San Francisco (Herman Barfield, ca. 1917)
• home movie of Satchel Paige and other all-stars (Richard Brooks, 1948) 
• home movies from Expo 67 (Walter Forsberg, 1967/2004)
• home movies from NO MORE ROAD TRIPS? (Rick Prelinger, 2013)
• home movies of New Orleans (Helen Hill, 2000-2003)
• LEAD-INs (BET, Saundra Sharp and Thom Eubank, 1981)
• Mission to Mongo (Jim Hoberman, 1978)
• Naked Yoga (Paul Cordsen, 1974) excerpt
• OH MY GOD! IT’S HARROD BLANK (David Silberberg, 2008)  excerpt
• outtake from PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967)
• PORTRAIT OF JASON (Shirley Clarke, 1967)
• RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH ITS HEAD CUT OFF (Les Blank, 1960)
• SHIT (Penelope Spheeris, 1969)
• snipe countdowns (ca. 1940s-60s) courtesy of Walter Forsberg
• T.A.C. Magnavox TV ad (ca. 1972)
• The Love Charm (Ray Rennahan, 1928) excerpt
• The Shape of Films to Come (CBS, 1968) excerpt
• Transformations (Ralph Sargent for IBM, 1968)
• Two: A Film Parable (Satyajit Ray, 1964)
• What About Thad (BYU/LDS Motion Picture Studio, 1973)
• When the Organ Played “Oh Promise Me” (Cecil Stokes, ca. 1943) 

Get thee to A CLOSE LOOK AT ORPHAN FILMS, 10 & 11 de mayo

Cinco de mayo 2013

OMG! It's nearly time for the third iteration of what some Angelinos call "Orphans West." As happened in May 2009 at the Silent Movie Theater with The Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum, and in May 2011 at the UCLA Film & Television Archive's Billy Wilder Theater, this year the Academy is teaming with the NYU Orphan Film Symposium to bring a variety lineup of orphan films to Los Angeles. They call it The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films.

May 10, 8pm PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967) new restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Milestone Films. With guest speakers Robert Fiore (one of the very few crew members present for Shirley Clarke's all-night shoot with Jason), Oscar-winning documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and critic Elvis Mitchell.

Simply a great film.

May 11, 10:30 am til 11pmish -- More than 25 films and excerpts + lunch for a mere $15!
Reviving neglected works ranging from Penelope Spheeris's unseen student short (SHIT, 1969) to Jim Hoberman's experimental political essay film MISSION TO MONGO (1978 -- did you know the great critic J. Hoberman made films?) and Jon Boorstin introducing his beautiful EXPLORATORIUM (1974). Plus steam punk-archivist Dino Everett demonstrating a rare but functioning 16mm sound-on-disk projector from 1929. Plus the golden-tongued  Rick Prelinger talks about his new production NO MORE ROAD TRIPS? Plus trailer, snipes, home movies, re-creations of home movies, small-gauge and 70mm films, the debuts of several new preservation projects, and brands few have heard of, like Auroratone and Bristolphone.

Newly added to the lineup:  a tribute to Les Blank, with his first film RUNNING AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH ITS HEAD CUT OFF (1960, made at the University of Southern California), print courtesy of Flower Films, and an excerpt from David Silberberg's documentary OH MY GOD! IT'S HARROD BLANK (2008).  (Last-minute thanks to Harrod and David for their timely help.)


So SoCal friends: Buy tickets now, please!  The evening screenings will be especially hot tickets, it seems.

Linwood Dunn Theater -- 1313 Vine Street --  Hollywood

http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2013/05/real-indies.html

a co-presentation 
of 

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 

and 

New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Department of Cinema Studies

ACP: Free screening in Boston, Saturday, May 18th, 2pm

Happy May Day

From: Regina Longo

-- 

Regina M. Longo, PhD

Visiting Lecturer

Department of Film and Digital Media

University of California Santa Cruz 

E-mail: regmlongo2@gmail.com

URL: http://film.ucsc.edu/

Director

The Albanian Cinema Project

URL: www.thealbaniancinemaproject.org

Wanted: graduate student presentations for Indiana University's Orphan Film event

Bloomington, IN --

The announcement below is from Martin L. Johnson [the film scholar, not Osa Johnson's filmmaking husband], who is organizing a one-day conference leading into the Orphans Midwest symposium at Indiana University Bloomington.  Dr. Johnson [thought not that Dr. Johnson] received his PhD from NYU Cinema Studies in 2011, has been teaching at UNC Chapel Hill, and has accepted a faculty position at Catholic University in Washington for fall 2013. 

Martin Johnson and Caitlin McGrath (U of Maryland) co-chair the Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group within the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Dave Sagehorn (doctoral candidate at Northwestern U), as the group's grad. student rep., is helping to plan the conference described below.  This Thursday session is also designed to allow graduate students to attend the Orphans Midwest extravaganza that follows it. 

The September 26th daytime event will be followed immediately that evening by the opening of the Orphan Film Symposium entitled "Materiality and the Moving Image," which will continue all day and night Friday and Saturday, September 27 and 28, 2013.  All at the IU Cinema. Registration is open.  www.cinema.indiana.edu/about/orphans-midwest/ 

Call for Papers -- from graduate students 

contact martin.johnson@nyu.edu

Orphans, Disciplines, and the Institutions of Cinema: 

Placing Orphan Films

Indiana University Bloomington

Thursday, September 26, 2013

When the first Orphan Film Symposium was held in 1999, the agenda was clear from its title: “Saving ‘Orphan Films’ in the Digital Age.” Fourteen years, and eight symposia, later, orphan films no longer need scare quotes to be identified, and many previously obscure and unknown films are now at the center of archival and historical investigations of the cinema. Moreover, recent edited collections such as Charles Acland and Haidee Wasson’s Useful Cinema (Duke, 2011), and Devin Orgeron, Marsha Orgeron, and Dan Streible’s Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States (Oxford, 2012), demonstrate the history of these films before they were orphaned; they were produced, distributed, and exhibited as part of a larger nontheatrical network and as active participants in alternative cinema cultures.

In this one-day, graduate student conference is presented by the Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, in conjunction with Orphans Midwest (Sept 26-28), Indiana University Cinema, Film and Media Studies at Indiana University, the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. 

We ask for papers that consider the analytical, historiographic, and disciplinary consequences of "placing" orphan films in particular theoretical and historical categories. For example, does the identification of orphan works as educational, medical, industrial, scientific, or other genres of films remind us of the specific circumstances of their reception, or does it needlessly encourage a tendency to ahistorically categorize films? Are auteurist histories of individual directors overly dependent on art cinema modes of analysis, or do they give us a way to think of these works are more than mere expressions of institutional ideologies? Should we use the traditional tools of film studies, such as close reading, to analyze orphan films? Or is it preferable to create new methodologies that allow us to consider the tens of thousands of films that make up the orphan archives? How can researchers of orphan films benefit from dialogue with those in science studies, media ethnography, digital humanities, media archeology, and other emerging fields of study to produce interdisciplinary historical and theoretical work on orphan films?

Please submit 300-word proposals, and a brief bio, by May 10, 2013 to Martin.Johnson[@]nyu.edu. If you wish to propose a pre-constituted panel, workshop, or alternative presentation mode, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your plans.