Short Films for Short Nights will take place July 7–9, 2023
Actor, producer, and director Paul Dano and actor, producer, and writer Zoe Kazan will introduce the series on July 7
Live music by Brandon Lopez, Matana Roberts, Lea Bertucci and Ben Vida
(New York, June 29, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Short Films for Short Nights, a three-day film series beginning on July 7, 2023, featuring dozens of shorts made between 1896 and 1959 that collectively explore themes of modernity through cinema and film technologies. The series is organized by The Met’s Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art and will present films with their original soundtracks as well as a number of silent films accompanied by live music.
Over three thematic days, the program will examine how the advent of cinema opened new ways for people to experience new representations of modern life, and how explorations in the medium influenced new art forms. Highlights include two 3D films, one by the Lumiére Brothers (1896) and another by Norman McLaren (1951); the rarely seen 1907 Edison film Laughing Gas; Agnés Varda’s first short film, L’opéra-Mouffe (1958); and Jay Leyda’s ode to New York, A Bronx Morning (1931).
Friday and Saturday screenings will begin at 7 p.m.; Sunday’s screening will begin at 2 p.m. The program will take place in the Museum’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.
The series is free with Museum admission; advance registration is recommended. Registration details can be found on the website.
Screening Details
Program One: Perceptions
Friday, July 7, 2023, 7 p.m.
Live music by Brandon Lopez
Opening remarks by actor, producer, and director Paul Dano and actor, producer, and writer Zoe Kazan
Modern artists harnessed new ideas about optical perception, agitating the picture plane and upending conventional forms of representation. Cinema technology also brought new ways of seeing: two-dimensional drawings sprang to life through early animations, three-dimensional and stereoscopic films allowed viewers to experience moving images in “natural vision,” and manipulations of the camera lens tricked the eyes.
L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (1896), Auguste and Louis Lumiére, black and white, silent, 1 min. 30 sec.
Koko’s Earth Control (1928), Max and Dave Fleischer, black and white, silent, 6 min.
Fantasmagorie (1908), Emile Cohl, black and white, silent, 2 min.
The Infernal Cauldron (1903), Georges Méliès, color, silent, 2 min.
Around Is Around (1951), Norman McLaren, color, sound, 10 min.
Étude cinégraphique sur une arabesque (1929), Germaine Dulac, black and white, silent, 7 min.
Color Rhapsodie (1948), Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth, color, sound, 6 min.
Brumes d'automne (1928), Dimitri Kirsanoff, black and white, silent, 12 min.
Séance (1959), Jordan Belson, color, sound, 3 min.
Regen (1929), Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens, black and white, sound, 15 min.
The Wonder Ring (1955), Stan Brakhage, color, sound, 5 min.
Program Two: Bodies
Saturday, July 8, 2023, 7 p.m.
Live music by Matana Roberts
Introduced by Neil Cox, Head, and Lauren Rosati, Associate Curator, of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art
Just as modern artists reconfigured and reimagined the moving body, cinema compelled viewers to establish a new relationship with their own bodies as they were confronted by a filmic screen and actors mediated through the camera lens. Filmmaking techniques like cropping and montage abstracted human forms, making the familiar strange, while the enhanced vision made possible by cinema technologies found reflection in the superhuman content of early films, which often featured bodies supplanted by (or turned into) robots.
The Automatic Motorist (1911), W. R. Booth, black and white, silent, 6 min.
A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945), Maya Deren, black and white, silent, 2 min.
The Skeleton Dance – Silly Symphonies (1929), Walt Disney, black and white, sound, 5 min.
The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928), Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich, black and white, silent, 15 min.
An Extraordinary Dislocation (1901), Georges Méliès, black and white, silent, 2 min.
Dance Chromatic (1959), Ed Emshwiller, color, sound, 7 min.
Filmstudie (1926), Hans Richter, black and white, silent, 4 min.
Laughing Gas (1907), Edwin S. Porter, black and white, silent, 8 min. 30 sec.
L’opéra-Mouffe (1958), Agnès Varda, black and white, sound, 17 min.
Program Three: Systems
Sunday, July 9, 2023, 2 p.m.
Live music by Lea Bertucci and Ben Vida
Introduced by Neil Cox, Head, and Lauren Rosati, Associate Curator, of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art
The early 20th century saw advancements in nearly every aspect of industrial society, from urban planning and the growth of cities to the development of telecommunications systems. At the same time, scientific innovations allowed microcosmic glimpses of the natural world, opening new ways of apprehending organic life. Such shifts in scale generated both shock and wonder as modern artists grappled with methods for depicting rapidly changing structures.
Inflation (1928), Hans Richter, black and white, silent, 3 min.
A Bronx Morning (1931), Jay Leyda, black and white, silent, 15 min.
Mechanical Principles (1930), Ralph Steiner, black and white, silent, 10 min.
To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909), Percy Smith, black and white, silent, 1 min.
Peas and Cues (1930), British Instructional Films, black and white, sound, 9 min.
N or NW (1938), Len Lye, black and white, sound, 7 min.
One Week (1920), Buster Keaton, black and white, silent, 25 min.
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June 29, 2023
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