The State of Orphan Films: Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

A little more than a decade ago, the term orphan film emerged as the predominant metaphor for motion picture preservation in the United States, and elsewhere.A decade ago, in September 1999, the first Orphan Film Symposium took place at the University of South Carolina.This special theme issue of The Moving Image presents ten essays derived from talks given at the sixth Orphan Film Symposium, held at New York University (NYU), in March 2008.Such a full-fledged publication, aptly in the AMIA journal, brings the work of the Orphan Film Project to a new level of achievement.Much as dozens of orphan films have been preserved by or for the symposium, many of the scholarly presentations heard at "Orphans" have subsequently been published on their own, in journals (including this one) and books.In his editor's foreword to The Moving Image 6.2 (Fall, 2006), Jan-Christopher Horak wrote enthusiastically about attending the fifth Orphan Film Symposium at the University of South Carolina, which focused on sponsored films.He described "a palpable sense of excitement" at the event and saw potential for "seismic changes to film and media studies," based on the rediscovered works and new ideas presented there."More than one participant predicted the opening of a whole new field, comparable to the sea change brought about by the FIAF Brighton Conference in 1978, which gave birth to early cinema studies.Indeed, there was a sense at Orphans 5 of history in the making. . .."Horak concluded that the symposium might even enter "into the mythology of film historiography."Such laud will be difficult to fulfill-and certainly made Orphans 5 a tough act for its sequel symposium to follow.The first Orphan Film Symposium began with screening part of this never-released newsreel story."Leon Trotsky, of the Soviet Republic" (as John Ford introduces him in this early sound newsreel) addresses the Movietone microphone-in Russian: "Comrades, by the irony of fate I play the role of Trotsky in the new Raoul Walsh production by the Fox studio."The faux Trotsky is Boris Charsky, an actor in Walsh's The Red Dance.Bewildered Fox employees behind him include Tom Mix (top left, in cowboy hat).Recorded on the Fox lot in Hollywood, January 27, 1928.

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