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The Orphan Film Symposium, 7th biennail in New York City, April 7-10

From April 7-10, 2010, the Orphan Film Symposium will bring together a culturally diverse array of films and artists, professionals, as well as movie lovers of all varieties, from across the globe for its 7th biennial gathering, fittingly titled "Moving Images Around the World."

Hosted by New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and its Department of Cinema Studies, the symposium convenes at the newly renovated SVA Theatre at 333 West 23rd Street.

Since its inception at the University of South Carolina in 1999, the Orphan Film Symposium, under the direction of Dan Streible, has become an international summit for those interested in the study, preservation, and exhibition of "orphan films." Narrowly defined, an orphan film is a motion picture abandoned by its owner. More generally, the term refers to all manner of films outside of the commercial mainstream: silent and sponsored films, independent, industrial and avant garde work, home movies, advertisements, and other ephemeral moving images. The films on display are rediscovered gems, orphans that have been adopted and saved from neglect and deterioration.

More than 70 presenters from 16 countries will converge to exhibit 80 works (film, video, and digital) dating from 1894 to 2010, and to address this year's theme of "Moving Images Around the World." Topics to be discussed include: film repatriation; mobility, distribution, and travel; national, regional, local, and transnational cinemas; and neglected archival material that sheds light on international aspects of history and archiving.

Highlights of "Orphans 7" include:

- Gustav Deutsch's Film ist. a Girl and a Gun (2009), a narrative collage constructed using fragments from several European film archives, as well as the Kinsey Institute

- The premiere of a new restoration of the landmark independent documentary The Cry of Jazz (1959), with filmmaker Edward O. Bland. Restored by Anthology Film Archives with funding provided by The Film Foundation.

- With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain (1938), the first film by noted photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, presumed lost until recently rediscovered in NYU's Tamiment Library

- From Argentina, film archivist-curators Paula Félix-Didier and Fernando Peña (discoverers of the complete 1927 version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis) unveil previously unseen cinema from the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires

- The premiere of Andy Warhol's Uptight #3 -- David Susskind (1966), newly preserved by the Museum of Modern Art and the Warhol Museum

- The premiere of a never-released film, The Velvet Underground Rehearses (1965), shot by Danny Williams, a member of Warhol's Factory, shortly before his mysterious disappearance at age 27

- Orson Welles' Sketch Book (1955), a rare program made for British television and housed at the Munich Film Museum

- This year's Helen Hill Award-named in honor of the late animator and Orphan Film Symposium supporter-goes to two independent filmmakers, Danielle Ash and Jodie Mack. Both will present recent works, selected because they uphold the spirit and tradition of Hill's own hand-made films.

"For more information, including the entire schedule, visit the Orphan 7 website www.nyu.edu/orphanfilm