 |
Thursday, December 6, 7:30
$10 (CFI members $8)
Hosted by Randy Haberkamp
Piano Accompaniment by Michael Mortilla
Presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in collaboration
with the California Film Institute
Journey back 100 years to 1907, a key year in the development of motion pictures,
in this fascinating program organized by Randy Haberkamp of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with contributions from major US archives.
After years as a technological novelty, movies had finally found a home of
their own in 1905, with the expansion of storefront nickelodeons. This proliferation
continued in 1907, challenging producers to deliver more films with higher
production values. Filmmakers were shooting films both in studios and on location
while continuing to create a language of narrative storytelling. In the US
the Kalem and Essanay companies opened their doors in 1907, contributing to
increased production activity beyond the East Coast, and an actor named David
Wark Griffith began working for Biograph in December of that year. Several
films from Lubin and European companies instigated the first organized national
call for film censorship.
A Century Ago: The Films of 1907 offers a lively survey of international filmmaking
from that year with a selection of short trick films, actualities, primitive
dramas and gag films. Highlights include: the 1907 pixilation sensation The
Haunted Hotel, by J. Stuart Blackton of Vitagraph; the first film version of
Ben-Hur, from the Kalem Company, which led to a precedent-setting copyright
infringement case; The Red Spectre a delightful, hand-tinted trick film from
the Pathé Studios in France; actuality footage of the Shriners’ Conclave
at Los Angeles, photographed by Miles Bros. of San Francisco, whose headquarters
had been lost in the earthquake of the previous year; and An
Awful Skate, or
The Hobo on Roller Skates, the first film from Essanay. The program will also
feature such popular box office hits as The Love Microbe from Biograph, Liquid
Electricity from Vitagraph, An Interrupted Outing from Lubin, The
Dancing Pig from Pathé, The Eclipse from Méliès’s Star Films,
The Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus from Edison, and fragments
of The Bandit King and The Girl from Montana, both shot in the wilds of Colorado
by the Selig company.
Most prints are 35mm and are drawn from the collections of the Academy Film
Archive, the Library of Congress, George Eastman House and the UCLA Film & Television
Archive. Live piano accompaniment will be provided by Los Angeles-based musician
Michael Mortilla, and Randy Haberkamp will introduce and discuss the works.
Program approximately 2 hours.
This program will be presented only in Los Angeles, New York and San Rafael,
and as a continuation of the California Film Institute’s ongoing relationship
with the Academy, we hope that A Century Ago becomes an annual event at the
Rafael. Sponsored by the Pacific Sun
|
|
