The Orphanista Manifesto: Orphan Films and the Politics of Reproduction

Abstract

In this essay, I review the works of filmmakers Bill Morrison and Gregorio Rocha and contextualize their work within a growing apocalyptic cultural movement of film preservationists who identify as “orphanistas.” As orphanistas they struggle to reshape and reproduce cultural memory and heritage through reviving “orphans”—films abandoned by their makers. Moving images mimic cognitive memory, yet, depending on reproductive technologies, copies of moving images may organize mass publics and influence cultural imaginaries. Traditionally considered conservative, preservation in the midst of destruction is not only a creative but also an avant‐garde act of breathing new life into storytelling and the reproduction of cultural memory. In this essay, I discuss how the surrealist works of Morrison and Rocha radically confront dominant cultural imaginings of race and nation, and I argue that film preservation has the potential of being socially transformative. An interview with Gregorio Rocha follows.

Phone Footage and the Social Media Image as Global Anonymous Cinema

“…According to Emily Cohen, creative filmmakers such as Bill Morrison identify with the efforts of "orphanistas," those "who struggle to reshape and reproduce cultural memory and heritage through reviving 'orphans' -films abandoned by their makers." 45 Morrison's Decasia: The State of Decay (2003) presents a whirling collage of many orphan films on nitrate stock that bubbles, splotches, and streaks into evanescence. Decasia turns the distorted images of an Egyptian Sufi dancer, a Japanese geisha, and a vigorous boxer into visual metaphors, "creating a kind of filmic trance."…”

An Alternative History of the Arctic: The Origins of Ethnographic Filmmaking, the Fifth Thule Expedition, and Indigenous Cinema

“…The orphan film material from the Fifth Thule Expedition adds significant important layers to the “awakening of historical consciousness” (Cohen 2004, 719) by depicting varied Indigenous cultural practices and by making the work visible again, counteracting processes of erasure and elision. Med Hundeslæde gennem Alaska furthermore sheds new light on the emergent characteristics of early documentary, expedition, and ethnographic film, while representing several distinct Inuit groups as participants in their own representation and agency.…”

Sweet Magic: The Preservation of Helen Hill's Cinema

“…She contends that they are indicative of a contemporary milieu of creative "orphanistàs" concerned with "breathing new life into film preservation." 33 Indeed, Morrison and Rocha's reappropriations, deconstructions, and treatments of found footage ultimately reconceptualize histories, stereotypes, and cultural imaginings. 34 Implicitly, their creative processes necessitate substantial engagement with film preservation and archival practices, and this labor manifests in their respective avant-garde aesthetics and revisionist aims.…”