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We have extended the registration deadline to our workshop until June 6th. Please let us know if you are planning to attend. An abbreviated and updated version of our original announcement follows:

SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY:
A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop

The staff of the Moving Image Section of the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation will host a SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop, during June 14-16, 2012. The workshop will include unidentified films from other film preservation archives in addition to those from the Library’s collection.

SILENT FILM ARCHEAOLOGY: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop will be a three day event and take place at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, Virginia, during June 14-16, 2012. The majority of the films presented will be “silents” but will not be shown in silence. Phil Carli, Ben Model and Andrew Simpson will provide musical accompaniment. In addition to full days of workshop screenings, there will be evening public screenings of recent restorations the titles of which will be announced at a later date.

Prior registration is required and no reservations will be accepted after June 6, 2012. For more information, or to request a registration form contact: Rob Stone, Moving Image Curator at [email protected]" target="_blank. All registrants will receive additional information on schedule, housing and directions.

The June Packard schedule is out so Film ID attendees will see newly preserved silent comedy shorts from several archives on Thursday 6/14, the 1929 Technicolor Redskin with Richard Dix on Fri. 6/15, and the 1928 flapper comedy Bare Knees with selected short subjects on Sat. 6/16. All showtimes begin at 7:30pm.

This is going to be a hoot! Looking forward to seeing Nitratevillains et al down in Culpeper in a couple weeks.

Ben

Here are some Culpeper places to eat/things to do etc (in the few hours each day you will not be watching/Iding films )

http://www.visitculpeperva.com/dining.cfm

http://www.visitculpeperva.com/shopping.cfm

Rob Farr wrote:The June Packard schedule is out so Film ID attendees will see newly preserved silent comedy shorts from several archives on Thursday 6/14, the 1929 Technicolor Redskin with Richard Dix on Fri. 6/15, and the 1928 flapper comedy Bare Knees with selected short subjects on Sat. 6/16. All showtimes begin at 7:30pm.

I was searching some info on silent film posters over this past weekend. BARE KNEES was one of the films that came up with a delightful poster.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenman2008/4978304153/" target="_blank

http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2012/ ... .ly/LDEx9M

Packard Campus hosts Silent Film Archaeology Workshop

By: Allison Brophy Champion | Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: June 14, 2012

Premier film archivists, researchers and historians from all over will meet on Mount Pony this week to uncover the mysteries of silent movies.

The public is invited to share the experience at free screenings in the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater tonight, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30.

“Silent Film Archaeology: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop” aims to identify early movies that are untitled, or inadequately so, using the collective expertise of workshop attendees.

“The term ‘silent film archaeology’ has a redundant feel to it,” says Rob Stone, Packard Campus Moving Images curator. “Those of us that research, conserve or enjoy silent film are constantly taking on the role of archaeologist; all that is missing is the fedora and bullwhip. We are continually digging for more information, reconstructing events and gathering isolated facts that help build a map to unearthing more about silent film; we are literally chasing shadows.”

The staff of the Moving Image Section of the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation on Mount Pony, Culpeper, is hosting the special cultural event starting today through Saturday during which participants will screen 35mm prints and share comments and opinions related to origin. The expectation is that a significant number of the puzzles in the Library’s collection will be solved.

Why is it important to try to label these films? Because you “don’t really know what you have until you do,” notes Stone. “Might discover some forgotten classic.”

Silent film worksop presenters will include reps from the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Representatives from Colorlab, Niles Essany Silent Film Museum in Freemont, Calif., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The Syracuse Cinefest and The Denver Silent Film Festival are expected to attend along with independent silent film historians.

Three of the country’s leading silent film accompanists and composers, Phil Carli, Ben Model and Andrew Simpson, will provide musical accompaniment on organ and keyboard during the workshop and at the public screenings.

Of all U.S. feature films produced between 1912 and 1930, more than three-quarters no longer survive, according to a recent study by David Pierce now being prepared for publication by the LOC, according to a release.

Despite this fact, most U.S. film archives, including the one on Mount Pony, hold considerable amounts of both unidentified and inadequately identified silent era films and film fragments.

The Packard Campus hopes to make this a regular event and to expand it in the future to include all under-investigated areas of creative and technological achievement in the history of American movies.

Stone will explain the workshop further at tonight’s public screening in the Packard Campus Theater including various unknown and partially known silent shorts like “Felix the Cat in Ekimotive,” “Fatty and the Heiress” with Roscoe Arbuckle from 1914 and 1916’s “The Serenade” with Babe Hardy and Billy Ruge.

The prints showing tonight, dating from 1913-1929, include new prints made in the film lab on the Packard Campus as well as prints from the George Eastman House and MOMA, according to Jenny Paxson with the Packard Campus. Among other performers that will be seen on the big screen are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the comedies made prior to their partnership.

Richard Dix’s 1929 western “Redskin,” notable for its early use of Technicolor, shows Friday night, and on Saturday, it’s “Bare Knees,” a flapper comedy being presented from a brand new print. Silent short subject will precede Friday and Saturday night’s features.

Make reservations to the nightly screenings at (202) 707-9994. Stand-bys will be admitted 10 minutes prior to show time. The Packard Campus Theater is located at 19053 Mount Pony Road in Culpeper.