2022 International Domitor Conference Films and Screenings

Below you will find a series of in-person and online film screening programs that were curated for the 2022 International Domitor Conference, “Copy/Rights and Early Cinema.” These programs will be held beginning Monday, June 6, 2022 in advance of the online conference (June 9-12, 2022); they will run through early July 2022. We are very grateful for the support of our collaborators, Women and the Silent Screen 2022, the Cinémathèque Française, Kennington Bioscope, and the Library of Congress, for making these films available for viewing.

In-Person Film Screenings
Monday, June 6, 2022 – 10:00 am – 9:00 pm EST
Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York City
Katharina Otto-Bernstein Screening Room – 2nd fl.

Program 1: “You Don’t Own Me”: Copy/Rights and Cinema’s First Nasty Women

You need to register here to participate. We are currently working to find a platform to screen this program for those who won’t be able to attend in person. Full description of the June 6 programs with details can be found here. All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

This program features a sneak preview of eight films from Cinema’s First Nasty Women, a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set that will be released by Kino Lorber on Aug 30, 2022. (Read more about the project on our Women Film Pioneers Project webpage.) In keeping with the evocative themes of the Domitor conference, we’ve selected a range of films that thematize “reproduction” (as both imitation/copying and socially necessary care work) in the context of struggles for rights and ownership.

Angry nurse maids wage a general strike and beat up the police in La grève des nourrices, a housemaid wields a magical umbrella that disastrously multiplies any object it touches in Zoé et la parapluie miraculeux, and an absinthe-drinking woman (played by a man in drag) accidentally steals a Rembrandt painting, which turns out to be an art forgery in Rembrandt de la rue Lepic. Italian comedienne Lea Giunchi impersonates an automaton to con her future father-in-law into signing the wedding papers in Lea Bambola, while an Indigenous woman exacts her revenge after the white working-class mocks her for appropriating white bourgeois fashion in An Up-to-Date-Squ*w (which comes with a necessary content warning). La peur des ombres parodies D.W. Griffith’s race-to-the-rescue melodramas as a paranoid wife misrecognizes ominous shadows on the wall for a home invader, and Daisy Doodad terrorizes the patriarchy with her mimetic facial automatisms in an uncanny comedy that she co-directed in the UK. Last but not least, Ora Carew plays a twin brother and sister in Dollars and Sense, a farce about estate inheritance that climaxes with a hilarious chase scene involving incompetent police, a car, a ladder, and a bear!

All films screened in person will be accompanied by Liz Magnes on piano. They will be projected on digital files sourced from 2k and 4k scans of 35mm film prints provided by the Library of Congress, Gaumont-Pathé Archives, The British Film Institute, and the EYE Film Museum.

Program Details:

Le Rembrandt de la rue Lepic / The Rembrandt in Rue Lepic. : Jean Durand (Gaumont, France, 1911) cas.: Berthe Dagmar, Gaston Modot, French intertitles. Archive: GP Archives [FRPG]. RT: 6 min.

Zoé et le parapluie miraculeux / Zoé and the Miraculous Umbrella. Dir. Roméo Bosetti (Pathé, France, 1913) cas.: Little Chrysia. Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. RT: 4 min.

La grève des nourrices / The Nursemaids’ Strike. Dir.: André Heuzé (Pathé, France, 1907). Archive: Gaumont Pathé Archives [FRPG]. RT: 12 min.

La Peur des Ombres / Fear of Shadows. (Pathé, France, 1911). Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. RT: 4 min.

Daisy Doodad’s Dial. Dir.: Florence Turner; scen.: Florence Turner (Turner Films, UK, 1914) cas.: Florence Turner, Tom Powers. Archive: British Film Institute [GLB]. RT: 9 min.

An Up-to-Date Squ*w. Dir.: George Le Soir (American Kinema / Pathé, US, 1911). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 7 min. (With a video introduction by TJ Cuthand.)

Lea Bambola / Lea as a Doll. (Cines, Italy, 1913) cas.: Lea Giunchi, Raymond Frau, Giuseppe Gambardella, Lorenzo Soderini, Dutch intertitles. Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. RT: 6 min.
Dollars and Sense. Dir.: Walter White and Andy Anderson (Triangle Keystone, US, 1916) cas.: Ora Carew, Joseph “Baldy” Belmont, Nicholas Cogley, Blanche Payson, Mal St. Clair, Lige Crommie, Joseph Callahan. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 30 min.

TOTAL: 80 min.

Program 2: Library of Congress – Copyright Comedies and More

You need to register for the in-person screening here to participate. We are currently working to find a platform to screen this program for those who won’t be able to attend in person. Full description of the June 6 programs with details can be found here. All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

This program features thirteen remarkable silent films that were recently digitized by the Library of Congress, sourced from their nitrate film collection of early cinema—or from 35mm safety film when the nitrate copy was too decomposed. In January 2022, the Domitor Conference Committee received over 250 digitized film scans from David Pierce and Mike Mashon at LoC, from which we curated this assortment of evocative fragments that we are pleased to share with you here. We’ve chosen films that reflect our 2022 conference theme, “Copy/Rights and Early Cinema.” They span comedies about film censorship (Pruning the Movies and Censorship and its Absurdities), actualities that index the evidence of their own patents (Imperial Japanese Dance and Fads and Fashions of 1900), and adaptations of uncopyrighted source texts that provoke political questions about the convergence between technological reproduction and social rights. Indian Land Grab and Mexican Joan of Arc depict Indigenous and Mexican characters (played by white actors) who seek justice and exact revenge for the dispossession of their land and the murder of their people. The Stolen Play dramatizes the deadly stakes of copyright theft when a mesmerist thief hypnotizes the secretary of a blind playwright. A character applies for a camera patent in In Wrong, while the invention of a flying bat suit becomes entangled with a messy estate inheritance in Tillie’s Tomato Surprise, starring the indomitable Canadian comedienne Marie Dressler. The Doll’s Revenge, Disintegrated Convict, and And the Villain Still Pursued Her are all trick films that conjure grotesquely farcical takes on our larger themes. Some of these films have long been considered lost and others were merely forgotten: your gaze brings them back to life.

All films will be accompanied by Donald Sosin on piano.

Pruning the Movies. (Nestor, US, 1914) cas.: Harry L. Rattenberry, Carmen de Philippi, Eddie Lyons, Lee Moran. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 5 min.

Imperial Japanese Dance. (Edison, US, 1894). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 30 sec.

Early Edison Camera Tests. (Edison, US, 189?). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 1 min.

Censorship and its Absurdities. (Edison, US, 1915). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 5 min.

In Wrong. Dir. Phillips Smalley (Crystal, US, 1914) cas.: Vivian Prescott, Charles DeForrest. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 10 min.

Tillie’s Tomato Surprise. Dir. Howell Hansell (Lubin, US 1915) cas.: Marie Dressler. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 11 min.

Indian Land Grab. (Champion, US, 1910). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 11 min.

The Stolen Play. Dir. Harry Harvey (Falcon Features, US, 1917) cas.: Ruth Roland, William Conklin. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 53 min.

And the Villain Still Pursued Her. Dir.: J. Stuart Blackton (Vitagraph, US, 1906) cas.: Paul Panzer. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 6 min.

The Doll’s Revenge. Dir.: Lewin Fitzhamon (Hepworth, UK, 1907) cas.: Gertie Potter, Bertie Potter. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 3 min.

The Disintegrated Convict. (Vitagraph, US, 1907). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 5 min.

The Mexican Joan of Arc. Dir.: Kenean Buel (Kalem, US, 1911) cas.: Jane Wolfe, Carlyle Blackwell, Alice Joyce. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 9 min.

Fads and Fashions of 1900. (?, US, 194?). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. RT: 2 min.

TOTAL: 121 min.

Online Film Screenings

June 8-26, 2022

Program 1: “You Don’t Own Me”: Copy/Rights and Cinema’s First Nasty Women”

To tie in with this June’s Women and the Silent Screen and Domitor conferences, the Kennington Bioscope is honoured to host this presentation of “You Don’t Own Me”: Copy/Rights and Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” a selection of 8 silent film shorts which “thematize ‘reproduction’ in the context of struggles for rights and ownership”. Please find the program streaming here. You can also find the program and more on the Kennington Bioscope here.

The films featured were screened at an in-person event event in New York City on June 6th following the Women and the Silent Screen XI: “Women, Cinema, and World Migration” conference, and form the opening to the 17th International Domitor Conference “Copy/Rights and Early Cinema” which will now take place entirely online over Zoom.

By kind courtesy of Kino Lorber who will be releasing a spectacular 4 disc, 99 film Blu-ray/DVD set (Region Free) of “Cinema’s First Nasty Women” to the North American market in August 2022, KBTV is pleased to host this sneak preview of 8 films from the set with their newly recorded musical scores, and selected by “Cinema’s First Nasty Women” curators Maggie Hennefeld, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi and Laura Horak.

The presentation here is free and open access with no registration required, and will premiere on June 8th 2022 at 2.30pm Eastern / 7.30pm British Summer Time / 20:30 CEST. Viewers can optionally log in to YouTube with a Google account to comment during the premiere in the chatbox feature. The presentation will be available for replay through June 26th.

Programme details (timestamp access points will be available after the premiere)
00:00 intro from trailer edited by Stephanie Brown, music by Dana Reason
00:25 Michelle Facey introduction
04:50 Maggie Hennefeld introduction
12:15 Le Rembrandt de la rue Lepic / The Rembrandt in Rue Lepic. : Jean Durand (Gaumont, France, 1911) cas.: Berthe Dagmar, Gaston Modot, French intertitles. Archive: GP Archives [FRPG]. Music by Dana Reason and Peter Valsamis.
18:18 Zoé et le parapluie miraculeux / Zoé and the Miraculous Umbrella. Dir. Roméo Bosetti (Pathé, France, 1913) cas.: Little Chrysia. Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. Music by Gonca Feride Varol.
22:23 La grève des nourrices / The Nursemaids’ Strike. Dir.: André Heuzé (Pathé, France, 1907). Archive: Gaumont Pathé Archives [FRPG]. Music by Gonca Feride Varol.
34:32 La Peur des Ombres / Fear of Shadows. (Pathé, France, 1911). Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. Music by Alicia Svigals.
38:50 Daisy Doodad’s Dial. Dir.: Florence Turner; scen.: Florence Turner (Turner Films, UK, 1914) cas.: Florence Turner, Tom Powers. Archive: British Film Institute [GLB]. Music by Gonca Feride Varol.
47:22 video introduction by TJ Cuthand
53:53 An Up-to-Date Squ*w. Dir.: George Le Soir (American Kinema / Pathé, US, 1911). Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. Music by Eliot Britton.
1:01:10 Lea Bambola / Lea as a Doll. (Cines, Italy, 1913) cas.: Lea Giunchi, Raymond Frau, Giuseppe Gambardella, Lorenzo Soderini, Dutch intertitles. Archive: EYE Filmmuseum [NLA]. Music composed by Violin/Noir. Music performed by Rebecca Sabine and Aaron Ramsey, engineered by Aaron Ramsey.
1:07:36 Dollars and Sense. Dir.: Walter White and Andy Anderson (Triangle Keystone, US, 1916) cas.: Ora Carew, Joseph “Baldy” Belmont, Nicholas Cogley, Blanche Payson, Mal St. Clair, Lige Crommie, Joseph Callahan. Archive: Library of Congress [USW]. Music by José María Serralde Ruiz.
1:38:06 Michelle Facey outro
1:39:07 Cinema’s First Nasty Women trailer edited by Stephanie Brown, music by Dana Reason

TOTAL: 102 min

Register for free online access to the entire Domitor conference with Zoom panels between June 9th-12th 2022:
Full conference programme details:
https://domitor.org/conference/2022-culpeper-conference/#2022-conference-program
Zoom registration:
https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ab3sW96MQ2OqhXVhn0k6Yw

Full information about the Cinema’s First Nasty Women project, including other events and the forthcoming Kino Lorber Blu-ray/DVD release:
https://wfpp.columbia.edu/cinemas-first-nasty-women/
twitter.com/@nastysilents
facebook.com/@nastysilents

Kino Lorber has issued a great many wonderful Blu-ray and DVD releases for the North American market, including many silents and early talkies. “Cinema’s First Nasty Women” will be Region Free (0/ABC) available to pre-order at the end of June.
https://www.klstudioclassics.com/
Thanks to Bret Wood

Please explore the rest of the Kennington Bioscope channel at youtube.com/kenningtonbioscope to access our back catalogue of live online silent screenings, and ‘Subscribe’ to the channel (free) for notification of future online events.
The Kennington Bioscope has returned to in-person screenings with live music at our base The Cinema Museum in London. Next show June 15th:
http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2022/kennington-bioscope-presents-the-man-without-desire-1923/
www.kenningtonbioscope.com
https://twitter.com/@kenbioscope
KBTV tip jar: ko-fi.com/kenningtonbioscope

June 8-July 6, 2022

Program 2: Library of Congress – Copyright Comedies and More

This program will be generously hosted by Cinémathèque Française’s online streaming platform ‘HENRI’ (https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/) from June 8-July 6, 2022.

The program features thirteen remarkable silent films that were recently digitized by the Library of Congress, sourced from their nitrate film collection of early cinema—or from 35mm safety film when the nitrate copy was too decomposed. In January 2022, the Domitor Conference Committee received over 250 digitized film scans from David Pierce and Mike Mashon at LoC, from which we curated this assortment of evocative fragments that we are pleased to share with you here. We’ve chosen films that reflect our 2022 conference theme, “Copy/Rights and Early Cinema.” They span comedies about film censorship (Pruning the Movies and Censorship and its Absurdities), actualities that index the evidence of their own patents (Imperial Japanese Dance and Fads and Fashions of 1900), and adaptations of uncopyrighted source texts that provoke political questions about the convergence between technological reproduction and social rights. Indian Land Grab and Mexican Joan of Arc depict Indigenous and Mexican characters (played by white actors) who seek justice and exact revenge for the dispossession of their land and the murder of their people. The Stolen Play dramatizes the deadly stakes of copyright theft when a mesmerist thief hypnotizes the secretary of a blind playwright. A character applies for a camera patent in In Wrong, while the invention of a flying bat suit becomes entangled with a messy estate inheritance in Tillie’s Tomato Surprise, starring the indomitable Canadian comedienne Marie Dressler. The Doll’s Revenge, Disintegrated Convict, and And the Villain Still Pursued Her are all trick films that conjure grotesquely farcical takes on our larger themes. Some of these films have long been considered lost and others were merely forgotten: your gaze brings them back to life.