Dryden Theatre to screen short films from Eastman House collection, accompanied by Dreamland Faces, Friday, May 9

Recently preserved short films include Houdini, Felix the Cat, the pyramids in 1915, and early stop-motion animation

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House presents "Dreamland Movies: Treasures from the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collections" at 8 p.m. Friday, May 9. The films featured are recently preserved shorts from the first 50 years of cinema.

These rarities from the George Eastman House vaults include animation, experimental kaleidoscope films, and instructions on the art of growing mushrooms and making lariats and phonographic records. A few stars of the short films include Felix the Cat and Harry Houdini.

The screenings, which will run about 90 minutes in total, will be accompanied by the live music of Dreamland Faces. The duo, originally from Rochester and now based in Minneapolis, consists of Karen Majewicz on accordion and Andy McCormick on musical saw. "Like a life-sized music box, Dreamland Faces is hauntingly beautiful and odd. It's vaudeville, it's cabaret, and it's nostalgic," said Frank DeBlase of City Newspaper.

The short films featured in the program "Dreamland Movies: Treasures from the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collections" are as follows:

THE HAUNTED HOTEL (J. Stuart Blackton, 1907, 5 min.) Trick film with one of the earliest instances of stop-motion animation, including a house changing into an organ, a table being set my invisible hands, and a bedroom spinning around a person atop a bed.

MAKING A RECORD (c. 1919, 3 min.) A 28mm educational film showing in detail the entire process of making a phonographic record.

MUSHROOM GROWING (c. 1915, 5 min.) A 28mm film featuring the warm golden tinting of the original diacetate print and time- lapse photography.

HOW THE COWBOY MAKES HIS LARIAT (1917, 4 min.) A 28mm film featuring a step-by-step lesson in making a real lariat from the sources used by 19th- and early 20th-century cowboys — hair from their horse's tail and mane.

THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (c. 1914, 2 min.) The animated adventures of a submarine and an exotic undersea world, drawn with white lines on a black background.

X-RAY FILMS (James Sibley Watson, c. 1955, 3 min.)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS (c. 1915, 8 min.) A 28mm travelogue of the environs surrounding the ancient pyramids is lighthearted in its tone and breathtaking in its imagery. Modern Cairo has long since encroached on the sacred temples making this film a time capsule of the historic landscape as it looked at the beginning of this century.

HOUDINI STUNTS (c. 1909-1923, 5 min.) A diverse collection of Houdini material, spanning nearly15 years. Included is actuality film of one of HoudiniÕs manacled bridge jumps plus footage of Houdini extricating himself from straitjackets while suspended from skyscrapers in a number of different cities as tens of thousands look on.

FELIX THE CAT FLIRTS WITH FATE (Otto Messmer, 1926, 9 min.)

FELIX TRIFLES WITH TIME (Otto Messmer, 1925, 7 min.)

DREAMY DUD (1916, 2 min.) The art of animation is given a whimsical treatment as we watch the drawing process for little Dreamy Dud, who is impatient for the animator to finish and causes all manner of interruption.

KALEIDOSCOPE (c. 1925, 9 min.) A test film made by Kodak Research Laboratories displaying color effects using glass prisms and glass discs irregularly coated with dyed gelatin.

LOVE, SNOW AND ICE [ICE CARNIVAL AT SARANAC] (1915, 3 min.) This 28mm non-fiction film is a unique document of the famous Saranac Lake Winter Carnival in the Adirondack Mountains, featuring the famed Ice Palace.

LAUREATE (Emlen Etting, 1940, 15 min.) A film "poem" where music, the dance, the theater, and the artist all work together.

Admission to the program is $6 general admission, $5 students and $4 members. For more information please visit dryden.eastmanhouse.org or call (585) 271-4090.

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