Archive for 2013

ARCHIVE IN A WALL CAVITY

posted September 10, 2013

Old houses’ wall cavities can be a delightful kind of moving-image archive: Older ones may well conceal wads of newspaper with captivating movie sections. Cinema enthusiasts may find reading those more compelling than grappling with jambs and architraves.

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A Most Diverting Account of the Movie Gimmick

posted August 21, 2013

On the always diverting Collectors Weekly web site, Hunter Oatman-Stanford describes movie and movie-house attention grabbing ploys that now almost define the shock-horror schlocker B Movie.

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More from Wunderkino 2013 – Hunt’n n Fish’n

posted August 19, 2013

Some of the earliest films were of a combative nature – there were boxing films, train-robbery films, and – as one of the most accomplished of early-film historians, Paul Spehr, described at this year’s Wunderkino, a gathering run by Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine – films pitched at hunters and fishermen.

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Wunderkino 2013 – What You May Have Missed

posted August 18, 2013

Oliver Gaycken discusses a genre of film you may not have known existed: Depictions of the latest in forestry science that government agencies and lumber companies made in the mid-20th century.

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The Resounding Demise of an Historic Maltese Cinema

posted July 22, 2013

Stand before a derelict entertainment facility, and it’s not difficult to hear peels of laughter, gasps of thrill or horror, applause. Those are hardly joyful sounds, however, if they merely reverberate eerily through a crumbling, empty hall. Such a cheerless edifice stands in shambles in Pembroke, a town on the small island nation of Malta.

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Bing at Home in Spokane, Washington

posted July 18, 2013

Gonzaga University, Crosby’s early stomping ground, is where you can find his boyhood home, and much memorabilia   By Peter Monaghan Spokane, Washington – Spokane is not the kind of location you might expect would give rise to one of the most acclaimed careers in 20th-century entertainment – most big-city Americans would consider it to

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Streaming Directly from the Cloud to Your Brain

posted July 11, 2013

In his new book, "Streaming: Movies, Media, And Instant Access," Wheeler Winston Dixon describes how digital platforms – laptops, smartphones, television monitors – have become receptors of streaming digital feeds, and asks what it all means for viewing, media consumption, and even various forms of social interaction. He says: "I was once convinced that I would never say this, but I now prefer a digital image rather than a filmic one. ... But one central question that supersedes all other concerns: is the film worth watching? ... It doesn't matter whether it's film or digital if it's utterly meretricious."

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How Movies Remake the Past

posted July 5, 2013

Film and other media, suggests Steve F. Anderson, can create versions of historical accounts that take root in popular consciousness, and come to be THE historical accounts.

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It’s the Reel Thing

posted June 17, 2013

The Reel Thing is the real thing, when it comes to symposiums on technical issues relating to moving-image archiving.

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Wunderkino 2013: Visions of Travel and Mobility

posted June 14, 2013

It's almost time to go to Bucksport, Maine, for the annual "Wunderkino," a much-admired, multi-disciplinary gathering of devotees of moving-image history, theory, and preservation.

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