In May, Anthology Film Archives followed up their massive city symphonies series with another impressive program: “Films for the Fair: The World’s Fair and the Cinema.” Beginning on May 8 with a screening of Lance Bird and Tom Johnson’s The World of Tomorrow (1984), a fascinating study of the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair made up entirely of amateur and archival footage, “Films for the Fair” ran for two weeks and covered most of the 20th century.
I was part of a research group (cinemaexpo67.ca) devoted to cinematic and quasi-cinematic experiments at Expo 67 for a number of years. This research led to a book titled Reimagining Cinema: Film at Expo 67 (2014), published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, a number of high-profile exhibitions, some film restorations, and several other events.
Because of this experience, on May 11, I was invited down to New York to introduce three programs of films along with Guillaume Lafleur of the Cinémathèque québécoise. With a few notable exceptions, these three programs were largely devoted to films about Expo 67 and films that had appeared at Expo 67, with a particular emphasis on “expanded cinema.”
Film Notes 1
As television emerged as an entertainment staple in middle-class households, cinema started looking a little long in the tooth. But at World’s Fairs in Seattle, New York, and Montreal, inventive filmmakers and technicians were exhibiting site-specific work that demanded a larger arena than the average living room could afford. Luminaries Charles and Ray Eames, already known the world over for their exemplary work in industrial design and the applied arts, debuted their revolutionary short film THINK at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, while documentary duo Francis Thompson and Alexander Hammid reunited for the six-screen opus WE ARE YOUNG! at the 1967 Montreal Expo. Building on a rich aesthetic that began, arguably, with the tricolor finale of Abel Gance’s 1927 silent epic NAPOLEON, these multi-screen works from the heyday of midcentury modernism pushed filmmaking to the limit of two-dimensional exhibition and inspired subsequent artists for decades to come.
Program 1
Charles & Ray Eames HOUSE OF SCIENCE (1964, 14 min, 6-screen 35mm-to-digital)
Charles & Ray Eames THINK (1964, 15 min, 15-screen 35mm-to-digital. Preserved by the Library of Congress.)
Francis Thompson & Alexander Hammid TO BE ALIVE! (1964, 18 min, 35mm-to-digital. Film courtesy of SC Johnson.)
Francis Thompson & Alexander Hammid WE ARE YOUNG! (1967, 20 min, six-screen 35mm-to-DCP. Courtesy of Library & Archives Canada.)
Vincent Vaitiekunas MOTION / LE MOUVEMENT (1967, 14 min, 70mm-to-digital. Courtesy of the Cinémathèque Québecois.)
Total running time: ca. 85 min.
Program 2
Roman Kroitor, Colin Low & Hugh O’Connor IN THE LABYRINTH (1967, 21 min, 5-screen 35mm-to-digital)
Christopher Chapman A PLACE TO STAND (1967, 17 min, 70mm-to-35mm. Courtesy of the Linwood Dunn Collection at the Academy Film Archive.)
George Dunning CANADA IS MY PIANO (1967, 4.5 min, 3-screen 35mm-to-digital. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.)
Michel Brault SETTLEMENT AND CONFLICT / CONFLIT (1967, 5 min, 2-screen 35mm-to-digital. Courtesy of the Cinémathèque Québecois.)
Georges Dufaux & Claude Godbout MULTIPLE MAN (1969, 15 min, 70mm-to-digital)
Total running time: ca. 70 min.
Film Notes 2
Expo 67 was the most moving-image-saturated Exposition of them all. While the films and installations that attracted the most attention were those that experimented, often boldly, with the possibilities of multiple-screen cinema (and are therefore included in the two multi-screen programs elsewhere in this series), Expo 67’s moving-image works ran the gamut of styles and approaches. This program features some of the single-screen highlights, including William Brind’s city-symphony-like IMPRESSIONS OF EXPO 67, two films exploring the pavilions devoted to Canada’s indigenous culture (as well as the experiences of the Inuit artists and craftspeople who participated in the Fair), John & Faith Hubley’s experimental animation URBANISSIMO, and a section of Jud Yalkut’s film METAMEDIA that was shot at the Expo.
Program 3
William Brind IMPRESSIONS OF EXPO 67 (1967, 8 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Eva Kolcze & Phil Hoffman BY THE TIME WE GOT TO EXPO (2015, 9 min, digital)
Marc Beaudet THE CANADIAN PAVILION, EXPO 67 (1967, 19 min, 35mm-to-digital)
David Millar AKI’NAME (ON THE WALL) (1968, 22 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Michel Régnier INDIAN MEMENTO (1967, 18 min, 35mm-to-digital)
Hubs Hagen EXPOSITION (1967, 10 min, 16mm. Collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.)
John & Faith Hubley URBANISSIMO (1967, 6 min, 16mm)
Jud Yalkut EXPO ‘67 (1967, 2 min, 16mm-to-digital, silent)
Total running time: ca. 100 min.
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