The Gossamer Wings of Early Cinema

The wings of costumed fantasy in early cinema are unfolding to new interpretations as today’s fashion film shorts take flight online. Showcasing an array of turn-of-the-century butterfly and serpentine dances, magical tricks and costume transformations, many from the BFI National Archive, Fashion in Film Director Marketa Uhlirova welcomes some of the most influential scholars of early film to explore these enduring works, including Vanessa Toulmin, Director of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield, Elif Rongen, silent film specialist at EYE Film Institute, Netherlands, and Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI. The panel will look at the use of costume in the context of turn-of-the century entertainment, the role of colour in early cinema and problems of colour preservation, restoration and archiving. With live piano accompaniment from Costas Fotopoulos.