Reprinted from Artsy by Amanda Scherker on April 10, 2019.
Early cinema is often remembered as an exclusively black-and-white affair, diametrically opposed to the vibrant menagerie of colors afforded by today’s 4K television sets. But in fact, an estimated 80 percent of early films were made in color—tinted, toned, and painted with bright dyes that produced an uncanny, surreal effect.
The bold and often fantastical colors that flickered across the earliest film reels are frequently left out of our greater cinematic history. More neglected still are the women responsible for those dazzling hues.
Indeed, the meticulous, exhausting work of hand-coloring film was one of the first careers in film production available to artistic women, and they came to dominate the field at the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunately, only sparse written records remain of their experiences, though their efforts can be seen and appreciated due to the restoration and digitizing work done by archivists. …
The Wizard of Oz re-released on home video? Again? That’s a question that’s going to be asked a lot as the studios finally dip into their libraries to release evergreen films, ingrained in our cultural consciousness, in the Blu-ray format. And nothing is quite as ingrained as The Wizard of Oz, one of the most watched and beloved films of all time. […]
In the early 1950s, the film industry, hoping to lure audiences back into theatres from their new TV sets, created more movies in color and introduced widescreen formats that could not be reproduced on the small screen. Between 1952 and 1954, it even tried to recapture viewers with movies in 3-D, the process created to intensify the illusion of depth. […]
United Steelworkers Local 1014’s Jenkins is the epitome of a union activist. He got involved through the USW’s Next Generation program for young members and has since been active in civil rights, election and organizing work […]