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Broken Blossoms
Location
Main screening room
Date
September 10th, 2021
Duration
104 min
Cycle
Stacey Steers

This Fall, the Cinémathèque is thrilled to present the work of the American artist and filmmaker Stacey Steers. Her unique and deeply original films have been presented in multiple animation and experimental film festivals while her artworks have been showcased in prestigious galleries and museums.

The Stacey Steers cycle is divided into three parts:

  • From August 19 to October 17, the exhibition Night Reels unveils Stacey Steers’ dreams in a magical universe occupying the two floors of the Cinémathèque. The artist designed an installation that unfolds several elements of her films into precious collages and tridimensional objects. Spectacular and surreal, one moves through Night Reels as in a waking dream.
  • A Stacey Steers film retrospective, composed of five short films, will reveal the director's creative journey from Watunna (1989) to Edge of Alchemy (2017). As it plunges her heroines into surreal tales, the universe of Stacey Steers is mysterious, poetic, and deeply influenced by early Hollywood cinema as much as 19th century engravings.
  • Finally, a carte blanche will shed light on the director's sources of inspiration with five feature films chosen by the artist herself. We will rediscover stars Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor in outstanding silent films (Griffith, Sjostrom, Murnau), as well as two more recent productions (Night of the Hunter and L’Esprit de la ruche).

We are also pleased to announce that Stacey Steers will be joining us to present her work and meet with the public from September 9 to 12.

Piano accompaniment by Guillaume Martineau

IN PRESENCE OF STACEY STEERS

Night Hunter
Directed by
Stacey Steers
Language
No dialogue
Origins
United States
Year
2011
Duration
16 min
Genre
Animation, experimental Film
Format
Digital
Synopsis

In this handmade film, composed of more than four thousand collages, the actress Lillian Gish is seamlessly appropriated from silent-era cinema and plunged into a new and haunting role. Night Hunter evokes a disquieting dreamscape, drawn from allegory, myth, and archetype. Music and sound by Larry Polansky.

Night Hunter

Excerpt Night Hunter

Broken Blossoms
Directed by
David Wark Griffith
Language
English Intertitles
Actors
Donald Crisp, Lilian Gish, Richard Barthelmess
Origins
United States
Year
1919
Duration
88 min
Genre
Silent Film, melodrama
Format
35 mm
Synopsis

Dans un quartier pauvre de Londres, un immigrant chinois recueille une jeune fille persécutée par son père, alcoolique. De ce canevas mélodramatique, Griffith fait une tragédie empreinte de poésie et de lumière. « La qualité des gros plans et la délicatesse des interprètes donnèrent à l'œuvre un retentissement profond. On n'oublie ni le sourire forcé de Lilian Gish ni l'émerveillement de Barthelmess devant la jeune fille évanouie. » (Alain Masson, 1995)

Please note that this 1919 film presents values, stereotypes and behaviors that may seem inappropriate

Broken Blossoms

Stacey Steers

Stacey Steers is known for her process-driven, labor-intensive films composed of thousands of handmade works on paper. Her recent work employs images appropriated from early cinematic sources, from which she constructs original, lyrical narratives. Through an intricate investigation of the nature of longing, she explores the ways desire provokes and mediates experience to create meaning.

(Source)

D. W. Griffith

David Wark Griffith was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered the art of the narrative film. Several of Griffith's later films were successful, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921), but the high costs he incurred for production and promotion often led to commercial failure. He had made roughly 500 films by the time of his final feature, The Struggle (1931). Together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded United Artists, enabling them to control their own interests, rather than depending on commercial studios.

(Wikipedia)

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Broken Blossoms

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À propos de Broken Blossoms
Full cast
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Night Hunter

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À propos de Night Hunter
Production notes
Open
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