一共7张碟： 　　 　　Disk 1: THE MECHANIZED EYE 　　Experiments in Technique and Form 　　 　　The dynamic qualities of motion pictures are explored by cameramen and filmmakers through novel experiments in technique and form. Early cinematographers James White, "Billy" Bitzer, and Frederick Armitage display experimental shooting styles that wowed audiences. Other independent companies further image manipulation through creative staging, editing, and printing, such as a stunning three-screen film that predates Gance's Napoleon. Experiments by photographer Walker Evans, painter Emlen Etting, musician Jerome Hill, and the film collectives Nykino and Artkino record the world in a continual process of flux. A most extreme approach is realized by Henwar Rodakiewicz with Portrait of a Young Man (1925-31), a monumental study of natural and abstract motions. 　　 　　18 FILMS: 　　5 Paris Exposition Films (1900)-James White 　　Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Palace (1900) 　　Palace of Electricity (1900) 　　Champs de Mars (1900) 　　Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900) 　　Scene from Elevator Ascending Eiffel Tower (1900) 　　Captain Nissen Going through Whirpool Rapids, Niagra Falls (1901)-creators unknown 　　Down the Hudson (1903)-Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed 　　The Ghost Train (1903)-creators unknown 　　Westinghouse Works, Panorama View Street Car Motor Room (1904)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer 　　In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea (c. 1924-25)-creators unknown 　　Melody on Parade (c. 1936)-creators unknown 　　La Cartomancienne (The Fortune Teller) (1932)-Jerome Hill 　　Pie in the Sky (1934-35)-Nykino: Elia Kazan, Ralph Steiner & Irving Lerner 　　Travel Notes (1932)-Walker Evans 　　Oil: A Symphony in Motion (1930-33)-Artkino: M.G. MacPherson & Jean Michelson 　　Poem 8 (1932-33)-Emlen Etting 　　Storm (1941-43)-Paul Burnford 　　Portrait of a Young Man (1925-31)-Henwar Rodakiewicz 　　 　　 　　Disk 2: THE DEVIL'S PLAYTHING 　　American Surrealism 　　 　　Edwin S. Porter and other early filmmakers used bizarre sets, fantastic costumes, and magic lantern tricks to illuminate their fantasy films. American parody supplied Douglas Fairbanks with enough unusual material to produce the truly surreal When the Clouds Roll By (1919). The expressionistic Cabinet of Dr. Calagari (1919) influenced American sensibilities throughout the 1920s as seen in Beggar of Horseback (1925), The Life and Death of 9413-A Hollywood Extra (1927) and The Telltale Heart (1928). The emphasis shifted when amateurs J.S. Watson, Jr., Joseph Cornell, and Orson Welles crafted a unique variety of American surrealism on film unfettered by European concerns. 　　 　　17 FILMS: 　　Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)-Edwin S. Porter 　　Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)-Edwin S. Porter 　　The Thieving Hand (1907)-creator unknown, Vitagraph 　　Impossible Convicts (1905)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer 　　When the Clouds Roll By (1919)-Douglas Fairbanks & Victor Fleming (excerpt) 　　Beggar on Horseback (1925)-James Cruze (excerpt) 　　The Fall of the House of Usher (1926-27)-J.S. Watson, Jr. & Melville Webber 　　The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927)- Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich 　　The Love of Zero (1928)-Robert Florey & William Cameron Menzies 　　The Telltale Heart (1928)-Charles Klein 　　Tomatos Another Day (1930/1933)-J.S. Watson, Jr. & Alec Wilder 　　The Hearts of Age (1934)- William Vance & Orson Welles 　　Unreal News Reels (c. 1926)-Weiss Artclass Comedies (excerpt) 　　The Children's Jury (c. 1938)-attributed Joseph Cornell 　　Thimble Theater (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　Carousel: Animal Opera (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　Jack's Dream (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　 　　 　　Disk 3: LIGHT RHYTHMS 　　Music and Abstraction 　　 　　The rhythmic elements of cinema are explored by artists and filmmakers fascinated by the abstract qualities of light. The American authors of avant-garde classics Le Retour ａ la raison (1923), Ballet mｅcanique (1923-24), Anｅmic cinｅma (1926), and Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1934), are finally acknowledged for their seminal artistic achievements made in Europe. Pioneer abstract films by Ralph Steiner, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Dwinnell Grant, and George Morris are compared and contrasted with Hollywood montages created by Ernst Lubitsch, Slavko Vorkapich, and Busby Berkeley. For the first time on video, composer George Antheil's original 1924 score accompanies Fernand Lｅger and Dudley Murphy's film Ballet mｅcanique, a truly avant-garde cacophony of image and sound. 　　 　　29 FILMS: 　　Le Retour ａ la raison (1923)-Man Ray 　　Ballet mｅcanique (1923-24)-Fernand Lｅger & Dudley Murphy 　　Anｅmic cinｅma (1924-26)-Rrose Sｅlavy (Marcel Duchamp) 　　Looney Lens: Anamorphic People (1927)-Al Brick 　　Out of the Melting Pot (1927)-W.J. Ganz Studio 　　H20 (1929)-Ralph Steiner 　　Surf and Seaweed (1929-30)-Ralph Steiner 　　7 Vorkapich Montage Sequences (1928-37)-Slavko Vorkapich 　　The Furies (1934) 　　Skyline Dance (1928) 　　Money Machine (1929) 　　Prohibition (1929) 　　The Firefly- Vorkapich edit (1937) 　　The Firefly-MGM release version (1937) 　　Maytime (1937) 　　So This Is Paris (1926)-Ernst Lubitsch (excerpt) 　　Light Rhythms (1930)-Francis Bruguiｅre & Oswell Blakeston 　　Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain) (1934)-Alexandre Alexeieff & Claire Parker 　　Rhythm in Light (1934)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Melville Webber 　　Synchromy No. 2 (1936)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth 　　Parabola (1937)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth 　　Footlight Parade - "By a Waterfall" (1933)-Busby Berkeley 　　Glen Falls Sequence (1937-46)-Douglass Crockwell 　　Simple Destiny Abstractions (1937-40)-Douglass Crockwell 　　Abstract Movies (1937-47)-George L.K. Morris 　　Scherzo (1939)-Norman McLaren 　　Themis (1940)-Dwinell Grant 　　Contrathemis (1941)-Dwinell Grant 　　1941 (1941)-Francis Lee 　　Moods of the Sea (1940-42)-Slavko Vorkapich & John Hoffman 　　 　　 　　Disk 4: INVERTED NARRATIVES 　　New Directions in Story-Telling 　　 　　Early directors D.W. Griffith and Lois Weber develop the radical language of cinema narrative through audience-friendly melodramas made for nickelodeon theaters. Experimental fantasies are depicted in such independent productions as Moonland (c. 1926), Lullaby (1929), and The Bridge (1929-30). Depression era films by socially-conscious filmmakers reshape drama as demonstrated in Josef Berne's brooding Black Dawn (1933) and Strand and Hurwitz's biting Native Land (1937-41): each pictures a raw reality. Parody and satire find their mark in Theodore Huff's Little Geezer (1932) and Barlow, Hay and Le Roy's Even as You and I (1937). David Bradley's Sredni Vashtar by Saki (1940-43) boasts an inadvertent post-modern attitude. 　　 　　12 FILMS: 　　The House with Closed Shutters (1910)-D.W. Griffith & G.W. "Billy" Bitzer 　　Suspense (1913)-Lois Weber & Philips Smalley 　　Moonland (c. 1926)-Neil McQuire & William A. O'Connor 　　Lullaby (1929)-Boris Deutsch 　　The Bridge (1929-30)-Charles Vidor 　　Little Geezer (1932)-Theodore Huff 　　Black Dawn (1933)-Josef Berne & Seymour Stern 　　Native Land (1937-41)-Frontier Films: Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand (excerpt) 　　Black Legion (1936-7)-Nykino: Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke 　　Even As You and I (1937)-Roger Barlow, Harry Hay & Le Roy Robbins 　　Object Lesson (1941)-Christoher Young 　　"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (1940-43)-David Bradley 　　 　　 　　Disk 5: PICTURING A METROPOLIS 　　New York City Unveiled 　　Only Unseen Cinema DVD released as a SINGLE 　　 　　The DVD depicts dynamic images of New York City and scenes of New Yorkers among the skyscrapers, streets, and night life of America's greatest city during a half century of progress, while at the same time showing changes in film style and the history of cinema experiments. Avant-garde moments pop up in the most unlikely of places including turn-of-the-twentieth-century actualities, commercial and radical newsreels, and Busby Berkeley's "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935. Included are spectacular prints of Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's Manhatta (1921), Robert Flaherty's Twenty-four-Dollar Island (c. 1926), Robert Florey's Skyscraper Symphony (1929), Jay Leyda's A Bronx Morning (1931), and Rudy Burckhardt's Pursuit of Happiness (1940). 　　 　　26 FILMS: 　　The Blizzard (1899)-creators unknown 　　Lower Broadway (1902)-Robert K. Bonine 　　Beginning of a Skyscraper (1902)-Robert K. Bonine 　　Panorama from Times Building, New York (1905)-Wallace McCutcheon 　　Skyscrapers of NYC from North River (1903)-J.B. Smith 　　Panorama from Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer 　　Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theatre (1902)-Frederick Armitage 　　Coney Island at Night (1905)-Edwin S. Porter 　　Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer 　　Seeing New York by Yacht (1902)-Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed 　　2 Looney Lens: Split Skyscrapers (1924) and Tenth Avenue, NYC (1924)-Al Brick 　　4 Scenes from Ford Educational Weekly (1916-24)-creators unknown 　　Manhatta (1921)-Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand 　　Twentyfour-Dollar Island (c. 1926)-Robert Flaherty 　　Skyscraper Symphony (1929)-Robert Florey 　　Manhattan Medley (1931)-Bonney Powell 　　A Bronx Morning (1931)-Jay Leyda 　　Footnote to Fact (1933)-Lewis Jacobs 　　Seeing the World (1937)-Rudy Burckhardt 　　Pursuit of Hapiness (1940)-Rudy Burckhardt 　　Gold Diggers of 1935 - "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935)-Busby Berkeley (excerpt) 　　Autumn Fire (1930-33)-Herman Weinberg 　　 　　 　　Disk 6: THE AMATEUR AS AUTEUR 　　Discovering Paradise in Pictures 　　 　　These home-made films incorporate avant-garde strategies and techniques to achieve a true sense of cinematic intimacy. Glimpses of life caught unawares are found in the home movies of Elizabeth Woodman Wright, Archie Stewart, Frank Stauffacher, and John C. Hecker. Poetic lyricism finds a voice in city symphonies: Lynn Riggs and James Hughes' A Day in Santa Fe (1931) and Rudy Burckhardt's Haiti (1938). Professionally minded films, like Theodore Case's sound tests (c. 1925) and Lewis Jacobs' Tree Trunk to Head (1938), operate from a similar home-spun perspective of sincerity. Joseph Cornell offers an enigmatic but lovely homage to childhood with Children's Trilogy (c. 1938). 　　 　　20 FILMS: 　　7 Case Sound Tests (c. 1924-25)-Theodore Case & Earl Sponable 　　Windy Ledge Farm (c. 1929-34)-Elizabeth Woodman Wright 　　A Day in Santa Fe (1931)-Lynn Riggs & James Hughes 　　4 Stewart Family Home Movies (c. 1935-39)-Archie Stewart 　　Children's Party (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　Cotillion (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　The Midnight Party (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell 　　Haiti (1938)-Rudy Burckhardt 　　Tree Trunk to Head (1938)-Lewis Jacobs 　　Bicycle Polo at San Mateo (1940-42)-Frank Stauffacher 　　1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (1939)-John C. Hecker 　　 　　 　　Disk 7: VIVA LA DANCE 　　The Beginnings of Cinｅ-Dance 　　 　　Dance and film have shared the aspiration to creatively sculpt motion and time. Some of the first films ever made featured Annabelle's skirt dance, hand-painted in glowing colors. Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis' innovations found their way into Diana the Huntress (1916) and The Soul of the Cypress (1920). Highly cinematic renditions of dance evolved in Stella Simon's Hände (1928), Hector Hoppin's Joie de vivre (1934), and Busby Berkeley's "Don't Say Goodnight" from Wonder Bar (1934). In counterpoint, cinｅ-dances by Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Ralph Steiner, and Slavko Vorkapich dispensed with actual dancers in favor of color, shape, line, and form choreographed into abstract light-play. 　　 　　33 FILMS: 　　7 Annabelle Dances and Dances (1894-1897)-W.K.L. Dickson, William Heise & James White 　　Davy Jones' Locker (1900)-Frederick Armitage 　　Neptune's Daughters (1900)-Frederick Armitage 　　A Nymph of the Waves (1900)-Frederick Armitage 　　Diana the Huntress (1916)-Charles Allen & Francis Trevelyan Miller (excerpt) 　　The Soul of the Cypress (1920)-Dudley Murphy 　　Looney Lens: Pas de deux (1924)-Al Brick 　　Hände: Das Leben und die Liebe eines Zärtlichen Geschlechts (Hands: The Life and Loves of the Gentler Sex) (1928)-Stella Simon & Miklos Bandy 　　Mechanical Principles (1930)-Ralph Steiner 　　Tilly Losch in Her Dance of the Hands (c. 1930-33)-Norman Bel Geddes 　　2 Eisenstein's Mexican Footage (1931)-Sergei Eisenstein (excerpts) 　　Oramunde (1933)-Emlen Etting 　　Hands (1934)-Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke 　　Joie de vivre (1934)-Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin 　　Wonder Bar: "Don't Say Goodnight" (1934)-Busby Berkeley (excerpt) 　　Dada (1936)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth 　　Escape (1938)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth 　　An Optical Poem (1938)-Oskar Fischinger 　　Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (c. 1940s)-Slavko Vorpapich 　　NBC Valentine Greeting (1939-40)-Norman McLaren 　　Stars and Stripes (1940)-Norman McLaren 　　Tarantella (1940)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren 　　Spook Sport (1940)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren 　　Danse Macabre (1922)-Dudley Murphy 　　Peer Gynt (1941)-David Bradley, starring Charlton Heston (excerpt) 　　Introspection (1941/46)-Sara Kathryn Arledge 　　 　　 　　SERIES CATALOG 　　"Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1893-1941" 　　 　　Unseen Cinema catalog features 30 essays, articles, and documents and 65 annotated photographs. Authors are scholars, critics, and filmmakers whose knowledge of the early avant-garde derives from either direct experience as a participant or years of scholarly research. Many hard-to-find photographs and sources detail the first decades of American experimental cinema in the United States and abroad. 　　 　　Table of Contents 　　Foreword-Jan-Christopher Horak 　　Words and Pictures-annotated photographs 　　1. The Grand Experiment-Bruce Posner 　　2. Hollywood Extras: One Tradition of `Avant-Garde' Film in Los Angeles- David James 　　3. Emlen Etting: Three Films-R. Bruce Elder 　　4. The Attraction of Nature in Early Cinema-Scott MacDonald 　　5. "Le Retour ａ la raison": Hidden Meaning-Deke Dusinberre 　　6. Music for "Ballet Mｅcanique": 90s Technology Realizes a 20s Vision-Paul D. Lehrman 　　7. Sara Kathryn Arledge: "Introspection"-Terry Cannon 　　8. Busby Berkeley and America's Pioneer Abstract Filmmakers-Cecile Starr 　　9. Joseph Cornell: An Exploration of Sources-Lynda Roscoe Hartigan 　　10. Discussing D.W. Griffith-Jay Leyda 　　11. Maurice Tourneur and "The Bluebird"-Jan-Christopher Horak 　　12. Diva of Decadence: "Salome"-Kenneth Anger 　　13. W.K.L. Dickson: Pioneer Filmmaker-Paul Spehr 　　14. Elizabeth Woodman Wright: "Windy Ledge Farm"-Karan Sheldon & Bruce Posner 　　15. Robert Florey and the Hollywood Avant-Garde-Brian Taves 　　16. Working on "The City"-Henwar Rodakiewicz 　　17. Warren Newcombe: "The Enchanted City"-Stephen J. Schneider 　　18. My Films-J.S. Watson, Jr. 　　19. J.S. Watson, Jr.: "Nass River Indians"-Lynda Jessup 　　20. ...And Melville Webber-Dale Davis 　　21. Making "Twenty-four Dollar Island"-Robert Flaherty 　　22. Avant-Garde Production in America-Lewis Jacobs (excerpts) 　　23. Rutherford Boyd and "Parabola"-Douglas Dreishpoon 　　24. Notes on New Cinema of 1929 and 1930-Harry Alan Potamkin 　　25. Herman G. Weinberg: "Autumn Fire"-Robert A. Haller 　　26. Unanswered Questions: Eisenstein's "Quｅ Viva Mｅxico!"-Herman G. Weinberg 　　27. My First Movie and "The Hearts of Age"-Orson Welles interviewed by Peter Bogdanovich 　　28. Highway 66: Montage Notes for a Documentary Film-Lewis Jacobs 　　29. The American Vanguard: Flux and Experience-R. Bruce Elder 　　30. New Artistic Process-Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff