It was fascinating to see how the whole project started; One man bought all of MGM's films and started to colour them, which caused a lot of controversy. Famous stars and filmmakers protested the film in court, which led to the creation of the National Film Registry. I found it interesting how important it was to keep the original films black and white...I could see why, when they showed some clips of It's a Wonderful Life in colour; I didn't recognize what movie the clip was until the original black and white version was played!
The vague criteria and diversity of films to select impressed me. Only 25 films are selected each year, and films have to be 10 years old. Besides that, everything is free game (I remember one interviewee said the people to make up the criteria were brilliant for making the instructions so vague.) The documentary presented many types of videos that were admitted for various reasons from one of the first films to test sound, Gus Visser and his Singing Duck, to modern art films such as Koyaanisquatsi. I was especially happy that they made a special tribute to animated films admitted, since I mostly hear people looking down upon animation. The fact that the Rocky Horror Picture Show was admitted was very amusing to find out, too.
The diversity of the films also attracted many different interest groups. There was a section discussing African-American groups promoting the film The Birth of a New Nation to be admitted, to represent how the KKK affected history. Another part discussed the role of women in films...one interviewee said that almost half the silent movies were written by women! It was also very interesting to find out that abortion was discussed in an early movie, since society seemed so conservative at the time...
(Some historical films were simply awful. Not only was "Duck and Cover" admitted, but another short was admitted that was even worse! The film encouraged people to paint their houses nicely, in efforts to protect themselves from atomic bombs!)
With all of the clips from movies admitted, I also found out about new films (ex. Daughters of Dust), and reminded of movies I need to watch (ex. Bladerunner). I also was reminded how magical film is; I'm not quite familiar with the science behind film, but the thought of moving pictures just appearing on a certain type of plastic is simply astounding.
With all of the clips from movies admitted, I also found out about new films (ex. Daughters of Dust), and reminded of movies I need to watch (ex. Bladerunner). The fact that all of the films shown were American-made is amazing. It makes me feel proud that the USA has produced a prolific amount of amazing cinematography. The movie is a must for cinephiles!
We will see Bladerunner in STAC in the next few weeks
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