Screening Nonfiction Films

The following passage is adapted from a 2001 article by historian.

In exhibiting works of art—whether in a gallery, a cinema, or anywhere else—the primary question usually is: which works should be exhibited together? In many exhibitions the selection is often tied to the creator of the works. For example, we might have an exhibition of Rembrandt’s paintings. Another reasonable method might be film has been taking place, and such films have been the subject of some notable retrospectives.

But I would argue that the philosophy of “collecting the similar” is often inappropriate for screening early film, especially nonfiction, because it means showing several films of the same type one after the other in the same sitting, which would never have been the practice at the time the films were made. and comedies to travelogues and news. Even into the 1920s a mixed program was the norm.

Film archives and retrospective festivals often behave as if the production of the films were the only side of the coin. Film archives spend vast amounts of time and effort in restoring films as they supposedly were when originally produced. These restorations are presented with great fanfare as authentic versions, or “directors’ the vaudeville tradition. It ill behooves us alleged early film lovers to forsake their insights today.