Retrospective of Orphan Film Symposium to Be Held in L.A.

      The Orphan Film Symposium, a biennial festival and conference founded in 1999 by Dan Streible, associate professor in the Cinema Studies Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, will offer a retrospective of its previous six incarnations in Los Angeles on May 2 and 3. The L.A. Filmforum and Cinefamily are working with Streible to coordinate the two-day event at LA’s historic Silent Movie Theatre.
      Archivists coined the term “orphan film” to refer to motion pictures abandoned by their owners. More generally, the term refers to any film outside of the commercial mainstream: home movies, silent films, independent documentaries, newsreels, outtakes, industrial and educational films, censored material, experimental works, and others.
      The retrospective will feature six shows highlighting selected presentations and screenings from all six previous symposia. Streible and others will lecture, and there will be a lineup of films. Visit www.lafilmforum.org or www.cine family.org for more information.
      —Richard Pierce