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NYU CANTOR FILM CENTER | 36 E. 8TH ST.


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The 6th Orphan Film Symposium is history, but you can listen to the presentations, recorded live from New York Wednesday through Saturday night. Just click on the "Listen" links next to the listings below.

Orphans 6 focused on works of, by, about, against, and under "the state," broadly conceived. Media archivists, scholars, filmmakers, preservationists, curators, lab experts, educators, researchers, collectors, distributors, librarians, students, and other enthusiasts convened to share their passion for the preservation, study, and creative use of neglected motion pictures. For 3 days and 4 nights, nearly 100 presenters addressed the role of orphan films in recording, representing, constructing, and imagining the state. Some 300 orphanistas from 18 nations experienced 40 hours of screenings, talks, discussions, and live music.

+ Live Blog: See photos and read reports by NYU graduate students and others documenting Orphans 6.


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Wednesday, March 26

Welcome to the Orphan Film Symposium, Dan Streible (NYU)[Listen]

Orphans 6 trailer by Bill Morrison (NYC)

Anywhere . . . A Tribute to Artist-Activist Helen Hill

"What is an orphan film?"
Interview outtake of HH from Orphan Ist. (2006, Lauren Heath, Erin Curtis, Mike Johns)

Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century (2001, Helen Hill) [Listen]

Remarks by John Canemaker (NYU Animation Program) [Listen]

Rain Dance (1990/2007, Helen Hill)
Bill Brand (BB Optics), Lauren Sorensen
(Canyon Cinema), Sarah Resnick (Todo Mundo),
Loni Shibuyama (ONE, National Gay and Lesbian
Archives) [Listen1][Listen2]

Helen La Belle (1957, Lotte Reiniger) introduced by Tom De Smet (Haghefilm) [Listen]

Vessel (1992, Helen Hill) [Listen]

Phil’s Film Farm (2002, John Porter) introduced by John Porter (Toronto) [Listen]

Helen Hill Award recipients Naomi Uman and Jimmy Kinder -- presenters: Susan Courtney & Laura Kissel (University of South Carolina) [Listen]

Removed (1999, Naomi Uman) [Listen]

Grandfather (2008, Jimmy Kinder) [Listen]

Mouseholes (1999, Helen Hill) introduced by Haden Guest (Harvard Film Archive) [Listen1][Listen2]

Termite Light (2003, Hill/Egan)
&
Cleveland Street Gap (2006, Hill/Egan)
Courtney Egan (New Orleans Center for Creative
Arts) [Listen]

[Home Movie Day New Orleans] (2006, Kelli Shay Hicks)
autoharp by Kelli Hix (Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum) [Listen]

Pistol Pete & Rayna Dae sing "Emma Goldman" (Hill/Gailiunas) and "My Pink Bike" (Hill) [Listen]

[Helen Hill’s home movies] (ca. 2002-05)
Kara Van Malssen (NYU) & Dwight Swanson
(Center for Home Movies) [Listen]

Think of Me First as a Person (1960-75, Dwight Core, Sr. & George Ingmire) George Ingmire (Mi Abuelo Productions) [Listen1][Listen2]

Quacks (1981) remarks by Kevin & Becky Lewis (Columbia, SC) [Listen1][Listen2]

Scratch and Crow(1995, Helen Hill)

+ surprise finale
The House of Sweet Magic (1981) [Listen]

Thursday, March 27

Welcome to Orphans 6
Richard Allen and Dan Streible (NYU Cinema
Studies) [Listen]
The State of State AV Archives
The Invisible Men (Les Invisibles, Pathé, 1906)
new 35mm print from NFSA Australia, Corricks Collection, piano by Dennis James
Paolo Cherchi Usai (National Film and Sound Archive, Australia) Keynote address [Listen]
+ Stages Illustrating Development of Human Erect Posture (192?)

The Archive: Between the State and the Independent Filmmaker
Tan Bee Thiam (Asian Film Archive) Singapore’s
Independent Film Pioneer: Rajendra Gour and
the restoration of A Labour of Love (1976)
Lucy Smee (Asian Film Archive/BBC) Political Filmmaking
in Singapore: Preserving the Banned Videos of Martyn See
Zhang Zhen (NYU) chair [Listen]

"The Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square"
Leah Churner & Kathleen Maguire (NYU MIAP) introduce [Washington Square Park] (1966, Bob Parent) [Listen]

NYU Surveillance Film of 3/6/68 Dow Chemical Demonstration (1968) [Listen]

Dan Drasin (filmaker) introducing his film Sunday (1961)
preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and The Film Foundation [Listen]

Andrew Lampert (Anthology Film Archives) & Steven Villereal (NYU MIAP) A Different Kind of Movie: Gordon Hitchens interviews Emile de Antonio (1967) [Listen]
Ross Lipman (UCLA) Order, Disorder, and Point of Order! (The Cropping of the Spectacle) [Listen]

Camera News, Inc. & the Newsreel Collectives
Jonathan Kahana (NYU) on prison films, Attica, and Teach Our Children [Listen]
Pamela Jean Smith (Pacific Film Archive) the PFA Newsreel Collection [Listen]
SCREENING: Teach Our Children (1972, [Christine Choy & Susan Robeson]) [Listen]
Eric Breitbart (New York) on army film and The Army Film [Listen]
SCREENING: The Army Film (1969, New York Newsreel) [Listen]
Q&A [Listen]

Seven Thousand Films for Government and Business
Rick Prelinger (Prelinger Library and Archives) Jam Handy and His Organization [Listen]

Screening: The Border
Mark G. Cooper (U of South Carolina) and Mike Mashon
(Library of Congress) introduce If My Country Should Call (1916), music by Dennis James, narration by Karen Young [Listen1][Listen2]
Gregorio Rocha (Archivia Films, Mexico City) with Viajepor el sureste (1936), Charles Lindbergh, and Jack Dempsey [Listen]
Kim Tomadjoglou (AFI) introduces the restoration of La Venganza de Pancho Villa (ca. 1930-34, Felix & Edmundo Padilla)[Listen1][Listen2]

Friday, March 28

Early U.S. Government Films
Jennifer Zwarich (NYU) The Bureaucratic Activist:
Federal Filmmakers and the Struggle for Social
Change in "Return to Normalcy America " [Listen]
Charles Grimm (independent researcher) on Department of Agriculture films [Listen]
Richard Allen (NYU) moderator [Listen to Q&A]

Political Campaigns, Counterpropaganda Campaigns
Craig Breaden (U of Georgia) campaign ads for Gov.
Carl Sanders (1969-70, Albert & David Maysles)
+ comments by surprise guest Al Maysles (filmmaker) [Listen]

Juana Suárez (U of Kentucky) & Ramiro Arbeláez (Univ. del Valle, Cali, Colombia) introduce Garras de oro
(The Dawn of Justice / Alborada de Justicia, 1926) [Listen]

International Communications
Jennifer Horne (Catholic U) U.S. Information Agency
films under George Stevens, Jr. [Listen]
SCREENING: James Blue’s Alliance for Progress trilogy (1963, USIA) [Listen]
A Letter from Colombia, Evil Wind Out, & The
School at Rincon Santo

Zoë Druick (Simon Fraser U) Stories of International
Development: UNESCO’s World Without End [Listen]
(1953, Basil Wright and Paul Rotha)
Robert Sklar (NYU) moderator

Extended Family Films from the Dutch East Indies
Elvira Pouw (for Julia Noordegraaf) (U of Amsterdam) [Listen]
The Extended Family Film, De bedienden van de
familie Sanders
(192?)
Nico de Klerk (Nederlands Filmmuseum) "Treated Like a King: Private Footage from the Dutch East Indies" Kwee compilation #2 (ca. 1929) [Listen]

Strange Bedfellows
Mark J. Williams (Dartmouth) presents
"Ronald Reagan presents The Orchid Award" (1953, ABC) [Listen1][Listen2]
Mark Quigley & Dan Einstein (UCLA) A Meeting of
Church and State: Television’s Paulist Twilight
Zone
: Insight (1963-1980)[Listen1][Listen2]
SCREENING: "Locusts Have No King" (1965) [Listen]

SCREENING: The Country
Melinda Stone (USF/StoneLake Farm) & Sam Sharkey
(www.howtohomestead.org) live via iChat video
from San Francisco, with a homemade sing-along and natural anthem "Everyone Needs a Hoe" [Listen]
Naomi Uman (Helen Hill Award recipient) with her work-
in-progress Kalendar (shot in the Ukraine, 2007-08)
Devin Orgeron (NCSU) & George Stoney (filmmaker)
introduce Tar Heel Family (1949) [Listen1][Listen2][Listen3][Q&A]
Naomi Uman con Leche (1998) [Listen][Q&A1][Q&A2]

Saturday, March 29

New Frontiers in Digitizing Legacy Videotapes
Ann Butler and Brent Phillips (Fales Library), Sarah Ziebell (Bobst Library) and Jim Lindner (SAMMA Systems)
Digitizing the [U-matic] Downtown Collection: 1970s experimental video [Listen]

"Orphan Works": Law, Policy, and the Moving Image
Howard Besser (NYU MIAP)
Peter Decherney (University of Pennsylvania)
Rina Elster Pantalony (Dept of Justice, Canada;
NYU MIAP) discussion [Listen]

for the real orphans . . .
George Willeman (Library of Congress) Salvaging The
Passaic Textile Strike (1926) [Listen]
Gail Malmgreen (Tamiment Library) on the Jewish Labor
Committee’s Nos maisons d’enfants (1949, France) [Listen]

Left Films Left Behind
Charles Musser (Yale)
Paul Robeson, Vito Marcantonio, and People’s
Congressman
(1948, Union Films) [Listen]
Cynthia Young (International Center of Photography)
Inside the "Mexican suitcase": Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim [Listen]
Román Gubern (Filmoteca Española) on El Laya Films
Noticiario de Laya unid. footage (ca. 1937) [Listen]
Paula Félix-Didier (Museo del Cine) introduces
Noticiario de Laya No. 3 (1937) [Listen]
Steven Marsh (U of South Carolina) respondent [Listen]

Watching Human Rights
Laura Kissel (U of South Carolina) Representations
of Human Disability in Scientific and Educational Films [Listen]
Jason Livingston (Ithaca College) Onondagas vs. NYS
(Philip Mallory Jones and the Ithaca Video Project, 1972) [Listen]
Grace Lile (Witness Media Archive) Amateur video in
human rights advocacy [Listen]
Mona Jimenez (NYU MIAP) chair [Listen]

Army Films: Pro & Amateur
Bill Birch (843rd SSPD) and Greg Wilsbacher (U of
South Carolina) Why We Film: Signal Corps
Operations and WWII Newsreels [Listen]
Marsha Orgeron (NCSU) Orphans of the War: The
Unofficial Record of Concentration Camps after V-E Day [Listen]
Mark Toscano (Academy Film Archive) introduces the
newly-preserved Sam Fuller film V-E+1 May 9, 1945
Christa Lang Fuller (Chrisam Films, Inc.) Sam’s camera [Listen]

SCREENING: A Celebratory Post-State Finale

Laura Rooney (AMIA) opening remarks [Listen]

Dan Streible Ro-Revus Talks about Worms (1971,
USC/SCETV) [Listen]

Skip Elsheimer (AV Geeks) Two Hundred (1976, USIA) [Listen]

JoAnne Stober (Library and Archives Canada)
Friendly Interchange (1961, Alma Duncan and
Audrey McLaren)

Julie Hubbert (U of South Carolina)
Music for the Silent Newsreels (1930, Fox
Movietone News) [Listen1] [Listen2]

Yvonne Ng & Lisa Fehsenfeld (NYU MIAP)
The Story of Hackettstown (1933) and Romance
and Red Bank
(1934) [Listen]

Joseph Clark (Brown University) & Tom Regal (Universal
Studios) Sound from the Radio City Music Hall
premiere of Peace, By Adolph Hitler (1941, March of Time) [Listen]

Martha Kelly (KY/NY) Our Day (1938, Wallace Kelly) [Listen]

Daniela Currò (Haghefilm) Encore: Think of Me First as a Person(1960-75)

Peggy Ahwesh(Bard College) Beirut Outtakes (2007, Ms. Ahwesh)

BENEDICTIONS
Ground Z (2005, two silent camera rolls by Jem Cohen)
Tunnel of Love (1996, Helen Hill)

POSTLUDE
John Migliore (NYU MIAP) Gatorade
Snowden Becker (UT Austin) & Liz Coffey (Harvard Film Archive) pie


Past Symposia

  1. Saving Orphan Films in the Digital Age (1999)
  2. Documenting the 20th Century (2001)
  3. Sound/Music/Voice (2002)
  4. On Location (2004)
  5. Science, Industry, and Education (2006)


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