Paolo Cherchi Usai

Fireflies have inspired poets, songwriters and scientists for centuries. Their brief, flickering light has stood for love, destiny, wealth and cosmic mystery, while also attracting Renaissance alchemists and modern researchers determined to understand bioluminescence. Long celebrated in Japanese folklore, the firefly is not without a dark side: witchcraft and black magic have represented it as a forlorn, mischievous or bloodthirsty spirit. Its real life is equally dramatic: predatory behaviour both within and from outside the species and the growing threat of extinction challenge the insects that illuminate our summer nights. This book brings together biology, legend and art, accompanied by a remarkable portfolio of field photographs and international artworks. The result is a luminous portrait of a fragile creature with enduring power over the human imagination.

What are the major issues and challenges that film archives, cinémathèques, and film museums are bound to face in the digital age and at a time when there is an expectation of access on demand? What is curatorship, and what does it imply in the context of film preservation and presentation? Is there a concept of “cinema event" that transcends the idea of film as “content” or “art” in the era of information? Film Curatorship is an experiment: a collective text, a montage of dialogues, conversations, and exchanges among four professionals representing three generations of film archivists and curators. It calls for an open philosophical and ethical debate on fundamental questions the profession must come to terms with in the twenty-first century. The first edition of this book was jointly published with Le Giornate del Cinema muto, Pordenone, Italy. The second edition features a new preface by the authors.

The Art of Film Projection: A Beginner's Guide is a beautifully produced, comprehensive outline of the materials, equipment and knowledge needed to present the magic of cinema to an enthralled audience. Part manual and part manifesto, The Art of Film Projection compiles more than 50 years of expertise from the staff of the world-renowned George Eastman Museum and the students of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation into the most complete and accessible guide to film projection ever produced. The product of more than ten years of painstaking work by renowned film preservation specialists, and featuring a foreword by Tacita Dean and Christopher Nolan, this volume addresses a changing film landscape. No film comes to life until it is shown on the big screen, but with the proliferation of digital movie theaters, the expertise of film projection has become increasingly rare. Written for both the casual enthusiast and the professional projectionist in training, this book demystifies the process of film projection and offers an in-depth understanding of the aesthetic, technical and historical features of motion pictures. Fully accessible for the layperson, student, technician or scholar, the book is designed to be used: richly illustrated with photographs and easy-to-read diagrams, it is printed at a size that is easy to carry, with a ribbon bookmark and pages for notes. The Art of Film Projection invites readers to help save the authentic experience of seeing motion pictures on film.

Paolo Cherchi Usai provides a comprehensive introduction to the study, research and preservation of silent cinema from its heyday in the early 20th century to its present day flourishing. He traces the history of the moving image in its formative years, from Edison’s and Lumière’s first experiments to the dawn of ‘talkies’; provides a clear guide to the basics of silent film technology; introduces the technical and creative roles involved in its production, and presents silent cinema as a performance event, rather than a passive viewing experience. This new, greatly expanded edition takes the reader on a new journey, exploring silent cinema in the broader context of technology, culture, and society, from the invention of celluloid film and its related machinery to film studios, laboratories, theatres and audiences. Among the people involved in the creation of a new art form were filmmakers, actors and writers, but also engineers, entrepreneurs, and projectionists. Their collective efforts, and the struggle to preserve their creative work by archives and museums, are interwoven in a compelling story covering three centuries of media history, from the magic lantern to the reinvention of silent cinema in digital form. The new edition also includes comprehensive resource information for the study, research, preservation and exhibition of silent cinema.

Longlisted for the 2020 Kraszna-Krauz Foundation's Moving Image Book AwardPaolo Cherchi Usai provides a comprehensive introduction to the study, research and preservation of silent cinema from its heyday in the early 20th century to its present day flourishing. He traces the history of the moving image in its formative years, from Edison’s and Lumière’s first experiments to the dawn of ‘talkies’; provides a clear guide to the basics of silent film technology; introduces the technical and creative roles involved in its production, and presents silent cinema as a performance event, rather than a passive viewing experience. This new, greatly expanded edition takes the reader on a new journey, exploring silent cinema in the broader context of technology, culture, and society, from the invention of celluloid film and its related machinery to film studios, laboratories, theatres and audiences. Among the people involved in the creation of a new art form were filmmakers, actors and writers, but also engineers, entrepreneurs, and projectionists. Their collective efforts, and the struggle to preserve their creative work by archives and museums, are interwoven in a compelling story covering three centuries of media history, from the magic lantern to the reinvention of silent cinema in digital form. The new edition also includes comprehensive resource information for the study, research, preservation and exhibition of silent cinema.

Complete output of D. W. Griffith explored by international team of scholars.

No other silent film director has been so extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than five hundred films had been the subject of a systematic analysis. Now, for the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith - from "Professional Jealousy "(1907) to "The Struggle" (1931) - is explored in this multi-volume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field. Created as a companion to the ongoing retrospective held by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, "The Griffith Project "is now an indispensable guide to his work. This is the final volume of the project.

No other silent film director has been so extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than 500 films has been the subject of a systematic analysis and the vast majority of his other works stills await proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith - from Professional Jealousy (1907) to The Struggle (1931) - will be explored in this multi-volume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field.

No other silent film director has been as extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than five hundred films has been the subject of a systematic analysis, and the vast majority of his other works still await proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith--from Professional Jealousy (1907) to The Struggle (1931)--will be explored in this multivolume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field. Created as a companion to the ongoing retrospective held by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, the Griffith Project is an indispensable guide to the work of a crucial figure in the arts of the nineteenth century. The latest volume assesses Griffith's work in 1914-15. It includes an extensive, multi-authored evaluation of The Birth of a Nation.

Provocative polemic on digital media; Features foreword by Martin Scorsese, extract overleaf; It is estimated that about one and a half billion hours of moving images were produced in 1999, twice as many as a decade before. If that rate of growth continues, one hundred billion hours of moving images will be made in the year 2025. In 1895 there was just above forty minutes of moving images to be seen, and most of them are now preserved. Today, for every film made, thousands of them disappear forever without leaving a trace. Meanwhile, public and private institutions are struggling to save the film heritage with largely insufficient resources and ever increasing pressures from the commercial world. Are they wasting their time? Is the much feared and much touted Death of Cinema already occurring before our eyes? Is digital technology the solution to the problem, or just another illusion promoted by the industry? In a provocative essay designed as a collection of aphorisms and letters, the author brings an impassioned scrutiny to bear on these issues with a critique of film preservation, an indictiment of the crimes perpetuated in its name, and a proposal to give a new analytical framework to a major cultural phenomenon of our time.

No other silent film director has been so extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than 500 films has been the subject of a systematic analysis and the vast majority of his other works still awaits proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith - from "Professional Jealousy" (1907) to "The Struggle" (1931) - will be explored in this multi-volume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field.

No other silent film director has been so extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than 500 films has been the subject of a systematic analysis and the vast majority of his other works stills await proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith - from Professional Jealousy (1907) to The Struggle (1931) - will be explored in this multi-volume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field. Created as a companion to the on-going retrospective held by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, The Griffith Project is an indispensable guide to the work of a crucial figure in the arts of the nineteenth century.

Silent film director D. W. Griffith is the subject of this study. Only a small group of his more than 500 films are subject to analysis. The creative output of Griffiths from "Professional Jealousy" (1907) to "The Struggle" (1931) is explored.