the assassination of Pancho Villa

sábado, 22/2 (32 días mas)

Gregorio Rocha sends this photograph, taken in El Paso Heights, Texas, ca. 1932. The two-camera, six-rifle crew was there to film a re-enactment of the assassination of Pancho Villa. The footage was then added to the extraordinary compilation film La Venganza de Pancho Villa, made by Edmundo and Felix Padilla. The Padillas collected all kinds of films related to the life of Villa -- features, serials, newsreels.

Between 1930 and 1934 they revised the film many times. Their screenings used music from their phonograph record collection as accompaniment.

The Padillas' story is told in two documentaries by Gregorio Rocha, an independent filmmaker based in Mexico City: The Lost Reels of Pancho Villa (2003) and Acme & Co. (2006).

After Gregorio identified the Padillas' lost reels in rusted cans at the University of Texas El Paso library, the Padilla family and UTEP began a process of restoration for La Venganza. The project was first announced at Orphans 2 (2001) by a breathless Gregorio, fresh from the discovery. It culminates on March 27, with the first screening of the restored 35mm film print of the Padilla production. The American Film Institute [Kim Tomadjoglou] has been working on the restoration with the fab labs of Cineteca di Bologna [Davide Pozzi], with the aid of the UNAM Film Archive in Mexico.

For this first projection, a team of students in the NYU Film Scoring Program is preparing a compilation score based on recordings found in the Padilla collection.

Snow day

(only 33 shopping days left)


photo by Walking Off the Big Apple

It snowed in New York today. The first real snow for a long time. Here's a Washington Square Park orphaned snowman who will be gone before you know it.

In the background, you can see the NYU Kimmel Center, where Orphans 6 will close with a big soiree. If you could cut to a reverse shot OTS, Mr. Snow is looking toward the Cantor Film Center.

It will be spring when we convene.

Christa Lang Fuller and Sam Fuller's film

(34 days left)
Exciting news:

Christa Fuller will introduce the March 29th premiere screening of the Academy Film Archive's restoration of the 16mm film that Samuel Fuller shot of the U.S. Army's liberation of the Falkenau concentration camp. He entitled it V—E +1 May 9, 1945. It was his first time with a camera.



We're thrilled to have her coming to Orphans 6. Long-time orphanistas, such as Marsha Orgeron and Lee Tsiantis, say Christa is a great conversationalist and a life force.


Bio in part:

An actress in European film and television, Christa Lang met Samuel Fuller 1965. They married in 1967.

After earning a graduate degree from UCLA in French literature, she formed Chrisam Films Inc. with Sam

in 1981. Since her husband's death in 1997, Christa has edited and republished his literary work, including A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking (Knopf, 2002) and the 1944 novel The Dark Page, reissued in 2007 with a foreword by Wim Wenders.

IFC show was great

photo by Katie Trainor

(35 days left 'til Orphans 6)

Last night's "Best of the Orphan Film Symposium" screening was a treat. Lots of good buzz during and after. Being a fast-paced clip-fest we had to show mostly video, but the IFCC crew made them all look their best. Thom Powers kept the show flowing from the stage.

As you can see from the line-up (yesterday's blog post) there was variety. Ariella Ben-Dov of the Madcat Women's International Film Festival was there and we talked about Helen Hill's film. Ariella was part of a great tribute/lovefest for Helen's work when they screened at the REDCAT theater in Los Angles.

Documentary filmmaker Anthony Gonzalez told me how much he liked the H. Lee Waters film of Kannapolis, NC, and wants to see more.

Josh Marston (who directed the great MARIA FULL OF GRACE) said a light went on as he watched the Waters film as well as the itinerant filmmaker Melton Barker's masterpiece (ahem) shot in Childress, Texas.

At the Minetta Tavern after, David Leitner (producer of FOR ALL MANKIND) shared some revelations about the NASA archive of Apollo films.

Which reminds me that there was a great moment after the clip from TEENAGE COSMONAUTS. Laurie Anderson came up to talk about her work as NASA artist-in-residence. She began by noting that she had in fact visited the Gagarin Cosmonaut School seen in the Soviet film. (No one trains there now, she said... except a Japanese rock star who wants to go into outer space.)

At the Minetta afterwards, best overhead bit of converstion: "Lou Reed said he liked that home movie, OUR DAY."

Good to hear.

WNYC Orphan interview available on-line

(36 days 'til the big O)





Hear here
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/02/19
the segment on orphan films, broadcast today on WNYC-FM in New York. Thanks to filmlovers Leonard Lopate and his producer Melissa Eagan (whose husband is writing a book about the National Film Registry, it turns out).

Leonard Lopate Show

(37 days remain...)
Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 1:00 pm, "The Leonard Lopate Show" on WNYC (FM 93.9) features 20 minutes on orphan films, the IFCC screening, and the symposium.

Below is the line-up for Tuesday night. (Tickets can be purchased on-line at IFCcenter.com).

Rain Dance (1990, Helen Hill)
HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

Kannapolis (1941, H. Lee Waters)
DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Madison News Reel (1932, Maine)
NORTHEAST HISTORIC FILM

Teenage Cosmonauts (1979, Ukrainian Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio)
NYU TAMIMENT LIBRARY

Laurie Anderson on footage from outer space...

Ramona & Jose Torres wedding film (1961) ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
Remarks by filmmaker Jeanne Liotta.

Evil Wind Out (1963, James Blue, USIA)
NARA

Our Day (1938, Wallace Kelly)
CENTER FOR HOME MOVIES
Remarks by Martha Kelly

Kidnappers Foil (ca. 1936-37, Melton Barker)
TEXAS ARCHIVE OF THE MOVING IMAGE

**************

Thanks to
Colorlab for preservation, printing, and transfers
&
Postworks, New York
for film-to-tape transfers

about Judson Memorial Church

(38 days 'til ...)

On Thursday, March 27, orphanistas will be served dinner (Chinese dumplings) in the main sanctuary of Judson Memorial Church. This historic building, designed by Stanford White, sits on the south side of Washington Square Park. (We will see it in some of the films we screen, especially in Dan Drasin's Sunday, 1961.)

By 1960 the Judson had developed a national reputation for opening the church to avant-garde artists. The grand room in which we will be dining has hosted many notable dance, theater, and music performances -- including Oldenberg's Happenings, viz: