SYMPOSIA

The Future of Obsolescence (EYE, Amsterdam, Mar. 30 - Apr. 2, 2014)
Orphans Midwest: Materiality and the Moving Image (IU Bloomington, Sept. 26-28, 2013)
The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films hosted by AMPAS (Hollywood, May 10-11, 2013)
Made to Persuade (Museum of the Moving Image, 2012)
Moving Pictures Around the World (2010)
The State (2008)
Science, Industry, and Education (2006)
On Location (2004)
Sound/Music/Voice (2002)
Documenting the 20th Century (2001)
Saving Orphan Films in the Digital Age (1999)

Special Events

The Real Indies: A Close Look at Orphan Films hosted by AMPAS, with Penelope Spheeris, Elvis Mitchell, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, S. Pearl Sharp, Ralph Sargent, Rick Prelinger, et al. (Hollywood, May 10-11, 2013)

Space Transformations, at Oddball Film (San Francisco, August 3, 2012)

After Dark: Mars, at The Exploratorium, films presented with Megan Prelinger (San Francisco, August 2, 2012)

OFS Brooklyn (Northside Festival, Nitehawk Cinema, emcee Ivria Dubs (June 21, 2012)

The What-Is-It? with producers of The Daily Show (Montclair Film Festival, May 2012)

Huérfanos México: Primer Encuentro Archivo Memoria, Audrey Young y Walter Forsberg, curadores (Cineteca Nacional de México, Aug. 26-27, 2011)

[interstitials] (San Francisco Silent Film Festival, July 14-17, 2011)

Celebrating Orphan Films, co-curator Mark Quigley (UCLA, May 2011)

Wisconsin Film Festival program, emcee Walter Forsberg (April 2011)

Orphans Redux, with Danielle Ash, Bill Brand, Heidi Cooley et al. (Anthology, Jan. 2011)

Orphans of NYC, with Nell Cox et al. (DOC NYC Festival, Dec. 2010)

The Orphan Film Project x7, with Juan Salas, Andrea Callard et al. (To Save and Project, MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, Oct. 2010)

Best of Orphan Films 3, with Farai Chideya (Stranger Than Fiction, IFC Center, March 2010)

Orphans West (L.A. Filmforum and the Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre, May 2009)

Best of Orphan Films 2, with Laurie Anderson and Jeanne Liotta (STF/IFCC, Feb. 2008)

Best of Orphan Films 1, with Alan Berliner (STF/IFCC, March 2006)

What's an 'orphan film'?

All manner of films outside the commercial mainstream: amateur,
educational,
ethnographic,
industrial,
government,
experimental,
censored,
independent,
sponsored,
obsolescent,
small-gauge,
silent,
student,
medical,
unreleased, and
underground films, as well as
kinescopes,
home movies,
test reels,
newsreels,
outtakes,
fringe TV,
and other
ephemeral moving images. More...