MoMA Preserved Early Color Shorts

Film

No upcoming events

The Great Train Robbery. 1903. Directed by Edwin S. Porter. Courtesy of Photofest.

Butterfly Dance by Annabelle. USA. 1894. Directed by W.K.L. Dickson. Under 1 min.
Serpentine Dance by Annabelle. USA. 1895. Directed by W.K.L. Dickson. Under 1 min.
Serpentine Dance. USA. 1896. Directed by C. Francis Jenkins. 1 min.
Métempsychose [excerpt]. France. 1907. Directed by Segundo de Chomόn and Ferdinand Zecca. 30 sec.
The Great Train Robbery. USA. 1903. Directed by Edwin S. Porter. 11 min.
L’antre infernal. France. Directed by Gaston Velle. 1905. 3 min.
Little Nemo. USA. Directed by Winsor McCay. 1911. 8 min.
The Horse in Action. USA. 1918. 3 min.
Opening Day Belmont Park. USA. 1913 3 min
Pennsy’s Pageant, First Annual Athletic Pageant. USA. 1913 3 min
Northern Norway. USA. Director unknown. 1919. 8 min.
Sunshine Gatherers. USA. Directed by George E. Stone. 1921. 9 min.
Coloring the Stars. USA. 1926. 11 min.
Rio Rita (excerpt). USA. Directed by Luther Reed. 1929. 3 min.
Katharine Hepburn screen test. USA. 1934. 2 min.

The series opens with a program of early and experimental pre-Technicolor films from the Museum’s collection restored, with the exception of The Great Train Robbery, in 2019. Among the first works to be acquired by the Museum’s Film Library in the 1930s, these include hand-colored dance films and famed cartoonist Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo, the stencil-colored L’antre infernal, the Kinemacolor Opening Day Belmont Park and Pennsy’s Pageant, the Prizmacolor Sunshine Gatherers, Kelleycolor Coloring the Stars, and a two-color Technicolor excerpt from the feature Rio Rita. The ambitiously hand-colored print of The Great Train Robbery peppers its fourteen scenes with a spectrum of hues - red and orange for smoke, flames and gunshots, green-blue, purple and yellow for banners and garments in a dance sequence -enhancing its realism and entertainment values.

This film accompanies Eye Candy: The Coming of Color.

Past events

Sat, Aug 26, 2023, 2:00 p.m.

With piano accompaniment from Makia Matsumura

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Wed, Aug 23, 2023, 4:30 p.m.

With piano accompaniment from Makia Matsumura

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Licensing

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