Moving image review (1988]-)

Silent Film Festival Symposium Focuses on Amateur Film Continued from Page 1 In a comic evaluation of flapper-era feminism, True To The Navy (1930) puts "It Girl" Clara Bow behind the soda fountain and into die midst of amorous sailors. Meanwhile, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) has race-walker Harry Langdon competing for $25,000 and die heart of Joan Crawford. Class issues and the role of newsreels in small-town cinemas come into humorous play. Screening prints come from archives around the United States. Most are seldom seen. Short films from NHF's collections and die Library of Congress will be included. The second annual Summer Film Symposium follows die festival on Wednesday, July 25 (see story, diis page). A silent-film appetizer turns up on June 22 at an Art Deco cinema in Bar Harbor, when NHF shows The Seventh Day (1922) at die Criterion. Henry King shot diis fictional clash between big-city hedonism and small-town virtue in Pemaquid, Maine. Arcady Music Festival players will accompany die screening, which is supported by die Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce. H ben should we reveal ' home movie footage to a public that was never meant to see it? How did the Twist wriggle into our living rooms? And what were those little packages Dad got in the mail, anyway? These are just a few of the questions likely to come up during NHF's second annual Summer Film Symposium, as presenters tackle the dieme of "Home Movies & Privacy." Coming on the heels of the 2001 Northeast Silent Film Festival, die Symposium takes place at the Alamo Theatre from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 25. Tricia Welsch, a new NHF Advisor and chair of Bowdoin College's Film Department (see story, Page 9), will moderate. Long on scholarship and short on jargon, aimed at educators and die public, the symposium will consist of a series of presentations, each followed by discussion. The day ends widi an evaluation, planning for next year, and dinner. Next year's symposium may center on regional archives and media literacy. This year's event looks at theoretical and practical issues revolving around amateur film. Selected by last year's Northeast Silent Film Festival Friday, July 20 7:30 p.m. The Lost World (^25. 101 min.) Saturday, July 21 2:00 p.m. South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919. 88 min.) 7:30 p.m. Shadows (1922. 70 min.; 16mm) with The Toll Of the Sea (1922. 41 min.) Sunday, July 22 7:30 p.m. True to the Navy (1 930. 71 min.) «.m. Where Are My Children? (W\G. 65 min. nday, July 23 7:30 p.m. Pass the GraYy(1928. 23 min.); with Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926. 62 min.) 9 p.m. South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919. 88 min.) Tuesday, July 24 7:30 p.m. Captain Salvation (1927. 87 min.) For tickets and information, contact Northeast Historic Film at 379 Main St., Bucksport, ME 04416(207)469-0924 Film Sources George Eastman House Library of Congress John Mirsalis UCLA Film and Television Archive Milestone Film and Video Museum of Modern Art Film Departn Warner Bros. Greenville, Maine, John D. Knowlton Collection. Frame enlargement from 8mm film, Andrea McCarty. participants, the theme is timely; the genre, says Welsch, "raises issues that are being looked at in this decade with a great deal more seriousness" than previously. "NHF is on the cutting edge of that development in film studies," she says. This year's presenters are: Patricia Zimmermann, Professor at Ithaca College and author of Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film, probably die best-known book on the social history of home movies. Her presentation is titled "Morphing History into Histories: Amateur Film and the Gendered Lens." Mark Neumann, Associate Professor at University of South Florida, who will present "Home Movies On Freud's Couch: An Exploration of Spontaneous Performance, Gender, and Latent Meanings in Amateur Films." Eric Schwartz, Esq., Smith & Metalitz, LLP. Counsel to the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation, he will discuss intellectual property law and rights of privacy relating to home movies. Eric Schaefer, Assistant Professor, Emerson College. His presentation is "Plain Brown Wrapper: Adult Films for the Home Market, 1930-1970," based on a study of 8mm films. B