Edwin S. Porter's film interpretation of Windsor McCay's Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Edison Manufacturing Co.)
Based on the popular response (and wildly appreciative comments) to the last Teen-Tiny Film event featuring the multi-talented Scott Paulson, I thought it would be best to highlight the final event in the film series: & From Surreal to Abstract (Thursday, May 8 at 8:00 pm at Porter's Pub, UCSD). The film series is a presentation of USCD's ArtPower! The event, as with the other Teeny-Tiny film screenings, features silent films accompanied by live music from Paulson's Teeny-Tiny Pit Orchestra. As in the past, the audience members will not be merely passive observers. No, no, no! Instead, the audience will be called upon to act as official members of the pit orchestra and asked to be as experimental and abstract as the films themselves. Instruments available for this particular silent film adventure will include the tambura, kalimba, and gamelan. For the series & sbquo; finale, the Teeny-Tiny Pit Orchestra will screen a collection of innovative and experimental silent films from the early 20th century. The press release promises: "Just like Scott himself, these films are mysteriously mysterious and humorously humorous!"
The films include Dream of a Rarebit Fiend , directed by Edwin S. Porter (1906). The scenario, taken from Windsor McKay's popular and thoroughly delightful comic, involves about a man who has had too much Welsh rarebit for dinner and suffers nightmares from the spicy food. El Espectro Rojo by french director Ferdinand Zecca (1903) serves up a beautiful example of hand-coloring in this classic trick film complete with strange Faustian characters. Fantamagorie by Emile Cohl (1908), which the series is calling "the the first fully animated film." Also screening will be: The Revenge of the Kinematograph Cameraman (Ladislas Starevich, 1912); Symphonie Diagonale (Viking Eggeling, 1924); Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (Robert Floery, 1928); and Tit for Tat (1900). This sounds like another delightful evening of film treats, and Paulson is bound to bring a lively improvisational feel to the whole proceedings.
MORE INFO: www.artpower.ucsd.edu
