Silent movies are usually absent in the streaming realm. Archives or YouTube can be the first stop for such works, but usually this comes with much search or a comprises. In this panorama, the Danish Film Institute’s initiative is particularly significant. Stumfilm.dk has been created as part of an ongoing restoration project and its objective is to highlight the importance of Denmark’s film industry in the beginning of the 20th century, an age when stars like Asta Nielsen, Valdemar Psilander and Gunnar Tolnæs found fame. The platform launched with 40 films, but more than 400 made between 1897 and 1928 will be added over the span of the four-year long project. In addition, a three-year research project between Denmark and Germany will help in mapping out the traffic of ideas and people between these two countries, who leaded the silent film era.
Elonet – Free online access to Finnish film
National Audiovisual Institute Launches 4k Streaming Service
On 3 December, the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI) in Helsinki launched a greatly expanded streaming service at elonet.finna.fi.
The key addition are 200+ Finnish feature films which are now available for streaming anywhere in the world for free. The bulk of these films are available at Ultra HD resolution but all feature titles are in at least HD quality.
The number of films available for streaming will grow in the coming years because in all, KAVI owns about 450 feature film titles. This number is about a quarter of all feature films ever produced in Finland.
Additionally, Elonet hosts thousands of advertising, documentary, and other short films. All war-time newsreels and the full series of 700 Finlandia newsreels are available for watching.
Elonet was originally launched in 2006 as a filmographic database. In 2018, KAVI built its own view to the national online finna service of archives museums and libraries, and this week, the elonet brand moved to Finna.
Call for Proposals/Travel Grants * Eye International Conference / Orphans
Call for Proposals for the 12th Orphan Film Symposium – Water, Climate, & Migration, hosted by the 6th Eye International Conference, 23-27 May 2020
The biennial NYU Orphan Film Symposium returns to Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, 23-27 May 2020, combining forces with the annual Eye International Conference to explore contemporary archival and academic debates. As always, both events assemble film heritage professionals, scholars, archivists, media artists, curators, collectors, filmmakers, and restorers, and others devoted to saving, studying, and screening neglected audiovisual media. Presenters selected from this open call for proposals will offer three full days and four evenings of talks and special screenings of rare and restored films.
This edition focuses on the urgent but perennial subjects of water, climate, and migration, by examining how neglected works have recorded, represented, and imagined these phenomena throughout the history of moving images.
We invite proposals to present talks and screenings that address one or more of these intertwined concepts. The symposium seeks a range of historical and theoretical perspectives. Proposals might address questions such as these:
- Water. Why water? Because of Amsterdam! Because everywhere. Water is essential to life itself but also has destructive, even traumatic power, through its flooding forces — or its scarcity. Societies are shaped by their interrelationships with water — the Netherlands being a most conspicuous and visible example. For filmmakers, media artists, and documentarians, H20 has always been a subject with aesthetic attraction as well. What neglected films illustrate the significance of water in its many forms?
- Climate. How can the study of moving images inform our understanding of earth’s climate over time? Of perceptions and collective imagination of climate? What films have tackled this subject directly? Indirectly? How might media be used as evidence of historical climate change? Moreover, how are the practices and conceptions of preservation itself being reexamined in a time of climate change? What of the environmental impact on and of archives? And how does a growing awareness of living an Anthropocene epoch alter our experience of watching historical audiovisual recordings of planet Earth, its atmosphere, landscapes, oceans, shores, cities, farms, flora, and fauna.
- Migration – human, animal, other – remains a topic of news, policymaking, political debate, scientific study, social analysis, and historical research. Humanitarian crises of migration are prevalent in current discourse but have been so throughout the history of mass media. What previously overlooked films and media recordings help us understand issues of migration and our engagement with them?
We of course also welcome proposals that address perspectives not mentioned here.
presentation formats
We invite a variety of presentation formats: traditional illustrated conference papers; introductions to single films; performances, demonstrations, and interventions; and recent media productions using archival or found footage. We can consider a limited number of (live) video presentations for those who either don’t fly or who want to fly less. Presenters selected from this open call will discuss and screen rediscovered or recently preserved films from collections and archives around the world. The event showcases a diverse array of rare orphan films – silent, experimental, nontheatrical, sponsored, independent, scientific, documentary, educational, newsreel, fragmentary, amateur, industrial, personal, incomplete, and other moving images from outside of mainstream cinema.
Presentations of 10 to 30 minutes will constitute most of the programming. We can also accept proposals for longer time slots if the running time of a compelling screening or the nature of a collaborative presentation warrant more than half an hour. Evening screenings (with short introductions) may allow for longer films, including features. We may discuss with presenters appropriate alteration of a format or duration when this makes curatorial sense for the programme as a whole.
how to apply
- Proposals (500 words or less) for presentations should summarize the argument or rationale and identify AV materials by title, format, and duration. Include a short bio (50 words).
- E-mail a .docx attachment to conference@eyefilm.nl.
- Subject header: PROPOSAL for Orphans 2020.
- Proposals received by 19 November 2019 will receive full consideration.
travel grant programme
Eye and NYU Orphans have established a travel grant programme for speakers of the Eye International Conference. The grants, up to 500 euro each, can be used to partially offset registration and travel costs. To apply, please submit a brief essay (no more than 500 words) addressing the financial need for the award, as well as how attendance at the conference will contribute to your professional development. Email your application by 19 November to conference@eyefilm.nl, using the term “Travel Grant” in the subject header. The travel grant programme is only open for speakers of the Eye International Conference 2020.
schedule
The Orphan Film Symposium begins with an evening screening on Saturday, May 23 (preceded by “Meet the Archive,” an afternoon public programme highlighting recent projects from the Eye Collection). Three full days and evenings of symposium presentations and screenings, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. “Orphans 12” attendees are also invited to special activities at the Eye Collection Centre on Wednesday 27 May.
This event is organized by Eye in collaboration with the Orphan Film Symposium, a project of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Cinema Studies, and its Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program.
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University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA).
For more information: www.eyefilm.nl/conference & wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm
Oscar 2020: Montenegro chooses “Neverending Past”
Neverending Past (Izmedju dana i noći), a film by Andro Martinović, director of the Montenegrin Cinematheque (Crnogorska kinoteka), has been selected as Montenegro’s candidate fot the 92nd Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the International feature film category.
It presents three stories of a father and his sonforced to question their lives in borderline situations, set in three different time periods: WWII, the fall of Berlin Wall and after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
World Day for Audiovisual Heritage
The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is annually observed on October 27 to build awareness around the importance of safeguarding our film heritage. This is a key initiative for both UNESCO and the Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) to honor audiovisual preservation professionals and institutions.
This year’s theme is “Engage the Past Through Sound and Images”.
News from Festival Lumière
2019 marks the 10th edition of festival Lumière, organized by Institut Lumière in collaboration with the city of Lyon and the Auvergne-Rhôn-Alpes. The festival takes place in the city of Lyon, the birthplace of the Lumière Cinematograph. Last year’s edition saw more than 180,000 attendees. As the festival continues to flourish, the anniversary is an opportunity to look back at the past ten years and continue to celebrate the memory of films, movie theaters and audiences.
This year’s edition is rich in events. Particularly remarkable is this year’s line-up when it comes to masterclasses with names like Frances McDormand, Daniel Auteuil, Marco Bellocchio, Marina Vlady and Bong Joon-ho. This year’s Lumière Award recipient, described by the festival as the “Nobel Prize of Cinema”, is Francis Ford Coppola. For its anniversary, the Lumière Festival has created a new section called Lumière Classics that presents a selection of the finest restored films of the year.
News from Le Giornate del Cinema Muto
The 38th edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto will take place between the 5 and the 12th of October 2019 at Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi in Pordenone (Italy). The festival, organized by La Cineteca del Friuli, will showcase more than 200 movies between short and feature films. This year’s poster pays homage to Marion Davies with a photo taken by the great photographer Ruth Harriet Louise on the set of Beverly of Graustark. The two main themes of the 2019 edition are comedy and the strong female presence in all sections.
The opening event, which will take place on Saturday 5th of October at 20.30, is The Kid (1921) with a live performance from the Orchestra San Marco of Chaplin’s sheet music. “It may seem strange, but in the lengthy history of our festival we have never screened The Kid. This gap will be filled on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of Chaplin’s birth”, explains the festival. The closing event will be The Lodger – A Story of the London Fog (1927), Alfred Hitchcock’s third movie in which we can already clearly see his future trademarks. The new score, composed by Neil Brand, will be executed by Orchestra San Marco directed by Ben Palmer.
European Heritage Days 2019 – Lovćen Film’s program
In 2019 Montenegrin Cinematheque is joining the celebration of European Heritage Days with the team “Arts and Entertainment”, which will be celebrated on the local and national level in the last week of September, between 23rd and 30th.
As usual, all events will be free of charge and opened to participants from different municipalities. Local and national institutions will organize exhibitions, visits to cultural heritage sited, as well as presentations of tangible and intangible heritage. Part of the program will be dedicated to educational workshops, lectures aimed for children and pupils and art competitions.
Andrei Tarkovsky Exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam
With associative films rich in imagery, such as Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), The Mirror (1974) and especially Stalker (1979), Andrei Tarkovsky (1932‒1986) made his name as a leading innovator of the language of cinema. This autumn, Eye presents an exhibition and film programme devoted to the celebrated filmmaker and mystic, focusing specifically on Tarkovsky’s quest for existential truth. In addition to immersing the visitor in Tarkovsky’s imagery, the exhibition includes unique documents — letters, photos and Polaroids — that have never previously been displayed in the Netherlands. Moreover, the accompanying film programme features digitally restored films.
14 September – 6 December 2019 www.eyefilm.nl/tarkovski
exhibition concept
The exhibition has been conceived to get as close as possible to Tarkovsky and his work. That is why it will immerse visitors in the director’s imagery, intoxicating them, as it were, with numerous precisely chosen fragments from his films. This approach follows the ideas of the filmmaker regarding the ‘poetry of the image’ and the necessity of a ‘poetic logic’ and a ‘poetic montage’.
private memories
Especially unique is the collection of Polaroids and photographs – never previously shown in the Netherlands – made by Tarkovsky in a private capacity and while filming. The exhibition will also include material from Tarkovsky’s private archives, including letters, scripts and other documents that have never before been presented. These mementos of Tarkovsky’s personal and professional life have been made available by Tarkovsky’s son Andrei Andrejevich Tarkovsky.
Eye International presents first Heritage Catalogue 2019/2020
If you attend the Classical Film Market in Lyon or the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, be sure to grasp your hard copy of the first Heritage Catalogue 2019/2020 produced by Eye International.
You can read all about our recent restorations and curated programs in this booklet. Eye International is responsible for the international marketing & promotion of Dutch films. Read more on our website: www.eyefilm.nl/en/eye-international
