FILM SCREENINGS

Santos Dumont’s Mutoscope: Early Cinema and Found Footage Film

2010. Brazil. Directed by Carlos Adriano. This essay-documentary employs interviews and documents to conjure a poetic portrait of a bygone era, putting its own unique spin on the tradition of early and found footage re-appropriation cinema. Adriano uses an unknown reel of photo-cards, which he found and restored himself, from a mutoscope film shot in London in 1901. The reel depicts Santos Dumont, a Brazilian aviator and inventor who lived from 1873 to 1932, explaining his airship to Charles Rolls, the future founder of Rolls-Royce. The dovetailing of early 20th-century inventions is the basis for a sensitive exploration of early cinema, supplemented by illuminating contributions from scholars and other professionals. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 64 min.