Screening: Selection of Shorts (1895-1933)

dublin | arts and media | event notice Saturday July 17, 2010 10:42 by Film Qlub filmqlub at gmail dot com

The Dublin Film Qlub is pleased to announce its September screening...
A selection of shorts from the silent era, from the hilarious to the sublime!

SHORT SHARP SHOCKS
Tuesday 7 September 2010, at 6 pm.
Outhouse Theatre
105 Capel street, Dublin 1

SHORTS SELECTION:
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1895);The Eclipse (1907); Algie the Miner (1912); The Danger Girl (1916); Lot in Sodom (1933) [plus surprise short]

The first gay-themed film sketch ever made is an experimental sound film made by William Dickson in 1895, with two men dancing together to a tune about lonely sailors at sea. Georges Méliès was a French film pioneer and an extraordinarily imaginative designer and scriptwriter who took the fantastic stories of vaudeville and lantern shows ‘where no one had gone before’. His short film ‘The Eclipse’ is a hilarious an outrageous tale of male lust. Often described as the inventor of narrative cinema, Alice Guy-Blaché was a French woman who moved to the USA, set up the film company Solax, and produced over 600 features and short films; a forgotten giant of film history, and one of many remarkable women directors of the silent era. Her short film ‘Algie the Miner’ is a sweet and funny take on macho cowboys (the character of Algie was re-prised by Bob Hope in 1952). Gloria Swanson, one of the first superstars of the silent era, was famous for her romantic roles, her exquisite wardrobe, and her outspokenness - and notorious for coming out of retirement to star in the classic Billy Wilder film ‘Sunset Boulevard’. In the short comedy ‘The Danger Girl’, in order to take revenge on an interfering flapper, Ms Swanson dresses as a young man and seduces her – wait ‘til you see her in a tux, she has never looked sexier on the screen! Many early filmmakers wanted to tell new stories, and tell them in a different way. Many were interested in experimenting with the distinctive qualities of film, and even after sound cinema was developed, some directors shunned dialogue and continued focusing on the visual as a new way of presenting narratives, ideas, meditations. ‘Lot in Sodom’, directed by James S. Watson and Melville Webber, is a remarkable modernist film made in the USA: almost choreographed rather than acted, it used a radical editing style seeking to create a certain visual rhythm. This film is also one of the most original retellings of the biblical tale of the Sodomites, focusing on emotion and not morals. It still looks dazzling after all these years…

FILM QLUB
The Film Qlub is a Dublin-based, not for profit club, offering one screening per month. The Qlub focuses on films of interest to the LGBTQ community and their friends. Anyone who supports that community and likes good films is welcome. The screenings are programmed around a common theme, and the first season, of ten screenings, focuses on silent films. There is free tea and coffee before the screening, and an open discussion on the film after. For more information on forthcoming films etc, visit the Film Qlub website.

Film Qlub Day membership: 8 euro. Full Season Membership: 30 euro (unwaged)/60 euro

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