Orphan Films Presented at the Museum of Modern Art

Dan Streible, Director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) Program in NYU's Department of Cinema Studies, led a sold-out screening of orphan films at the Museum of Modern Art last month. Following a successful debut in 2010, Streible's "Orphans at MoMA" program has been an annual feature of the Museum's To Save and Project International Festival of Film Preservation since 2014. Each year, the program showcases a variety of short works outside of the commercial mainstream, produced by both amateur and professional filmmakers.

This year's program, The Inner Whirled of Orphan Films, combined highlights from NYU’s 10th Orphan Film Symposium (April 6-9, 2016, at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center) and its theme of sound with even newer rediscoveries. Sound and vision serendipitously connected two pairs of married filmmakers whose work was shown at MoMA: the acclaimed designers Ray and Charles Eames and the prolific but little known Naomi and Edward Feil, who were in attendance on November 19. Added to the National Film Registry this year, The Inner World of Aphasia (1968) is an empathic medical education film, poetically directed by Edward Feil and with a powerful lead performance by Naomi Feil, who also wrote the script.

The appearance by Ed Feil, age 92, and Naomi, 84, was a late development in program. “It was a distinct honor,” said Dan Streible, “to have these remarkable people at this screening of their work. Ed shot his first film at the 1939 World’s Fair, and Naomi continues to make documentaries about her life’s work in communication with the elderly.” The Feils traveled from their home in Oregon for the event.

MIAP student Rob Anen presented another work by Edward Feil, a home movie from the 1964–65 New York World's Fair, which he came across while interning at Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive this past summer. The movie captures a rare look at the Eames' multiscreen installation, Think (1964), which was shown at MoMA in a newly reconstructed edition by the Library of Congress. Yet another unique discovery, presented by 2015 MIAP graduate Genevieve Havemeyer-King, was EPH 4/27/16, a wry, sophisticated Super 8 memoir by the late Ephraim Horowitz that was named one of the Ten Best amateur films of 1979.

Rounding out the program was a seldom-seen 16mm projection test presented by John Klacsmann of Anthology Film Archives, and two musical shorts from the early 20th century (Der Bajazzo: Duett der Nedda, 1908, restored by the Deutsches Filminstitut, and Premier nocturne en fa # majeur de Chopin, Interprété par Victor Gille, 1928, restored by the Cinémathèque française), both presented by pianist and radio host James Irsay.

Part of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, the Department of Cinema Studies and its Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) Program produce the biennial Orphan Film Symposium and similarly themed programming year round. Next up is a special event in Paris: "Orphans 2017" / Orphelins de Paris, hosted by La Cinémathèque française, March 2-4. The theme: Tests, Essais, et Expérimentations. Register here.