Posts: 1535
From: Long Beach, CA USA
Registered: Dec 2008
posted February 28, 2011 02:43 PM
I recently returned from giving what originally was to be a paper on the final Vitagraph features (specifically the 3 Blackton titles as released) on 9.5 at the Berkeley Silent Film Conference, but at the last minute I switched it to simply a fact based session on the gauge. The night I arrived in Berkeley there was a couple of posts on an archival listserv I subscribe to relating the 9.5 that seemed to indicate a general amnesia throughout even the archival community here in the states regarding the format. Because of this and the fact that one of the conference keynotes mentioned the number of silent films listed in the FIAF database, I felt it would be more appropriate (although not as professionally beneficial for me)to use the opportunity to stress the availability of these small gauge formats and the uniqueness of some of the titles on such gauges that do not get tracked via FIAF..For Instance of the 25 Vitagraph titles released and available on 9.5 only 9 are listed in FIAF giving the impression the other films are entirely lost...Which a nine-fiver knows is not true...Basically I spoke facts and figures and played a little movie (instead of a power point)while I spoke to hopefully educate the scholars as to the importance of these alternative small gauge "cinemas" in relation to the traditional cinema and archive.
Here is a link to the little movie (with my subversive slipped in comments)...Keep in mind there is no sound since originally I was speaking over it.