Ackland Film Forum: Color Triumphant in Silent Film
Contrary to popular myth, color didn’t arrive to the movies when Dorothy landed in Oz. While Hollywood studios embraced black and white cinematography in the sound era, reserving the use of the complex, and expensive, Technicolor for only its biggest productions, filmmakers in the silent era embraced the use of color. Films were tinted using a range of colors, with reds, yellows, blues, greens, and pinks used to signal the time of day, the mood of the scene, or highlight a special effect, like a fierce fire. In some cases, film makers hand-colored individual frames, a labor-intensive process that could create a sense of natural color or underscore the unreality of early film. This program highlights color films made in the silent era (approx. 1895-1930).
The film will be introduced by Martin Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and associate director of Film Studies.
This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Chelsea Theater (1129 Weaver Dairy Rd Suite AB, Chapel Hill, NC).
Visit the Chelsea Theater’s website linked above for pricing information; tickets are free for UNC-Chapel Hill students. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event. Please note that this screening will be held at the Chelsea Theater, which is not the usual film forum venue.
About the Series:
Join the Ackland Film Forum on selected Tuesdays evenings this fall for Color Triumphant in Film, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. While the natural world is full of color, for filmmakers color is a choice. Recreating color in the cinema required expensive technologies, careful attention to costumes and set design, and an openness to experimentation. In this series, we highlight how filmmakers have used color from the beginnings of the movies to tell stories.
The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.
