The Lincoln Library Film Society will screen several short films by László Moholy-Nagy tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 12) at 7 p.m.
While best-known for a career spanning sculpture, painting, and industrial design, the versatile Hungarian-born Moholy-Nagy also did pioneering work in the field of photography, producing short documentaries and abstract films that show the influence of constructivism on his vision. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933, moving to London, and later emigrating to the U.S. as the director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which only lasted for one year. He went on to found the Institute of Design, part of the Illinois Institute of Technology, which offered the first PhD in design.
Moholy-Nagy experimented with the photogram, a method of making silhouettes of objects on light-sensitive paper. Light and shadow often played a role in his sculptural work, making use of reflection and refraction, something that can be seen in constant use in his photography. His ideas concerning architecture, typography, and design (that they can all be utilized to transform the way we see and experience) are apparent in the films we will be screening.
Please note: the first several films are without audio, and a musical soundtrack will accompany them. Several restored films come courtesy of the Moholy-Nagy Foundation.
THE NEW ARCHITECTURE AND THE LONDON ZOO
UK / 1936 / silent / 16 min.
Made for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this film takes a look at the avant-garde goings-on at London’s zoo, including a revolving house in which the gorillas winter, a vast running space for the giraffes, and a snazzy restaurant from which people can throw food at the animals.
LIGHT-PLAY: BLACK-WHITE-GRAY
Germany / 1930 / silent / 7 min.
This short exhibits, in impressive detail, many of Moholy-Nagy’s concerns with shadow, movement and space. His own kinetic sculptures that play with light and geometry move in choreographed cycles, overlaid and superimposed in
BERLIN STILL-LIVES
Germany / 1926 / silent / 9 min.
With a keen eye for composition and modulations of shadow, Moholy-Nagy documents the everyday life of Berliners. They become sculptures in motion, dancing, twirling, resting along with the changing sunlight.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE OLD MARSEILLES HARBOR (VIEUX PORT)
France / 1929 / silent / 11 min.
The buzz and hum of a restless city, a melting pot brimming with lively commerce.
BIG-CITY GYPSIES
Germany / 1932 / silent / 12 min.
This vibrant document of Romani people in Berlin is at once happy and haunting – how many of the faces we see would go on to survive the Nazi purges?
LOBSTERS
UK / 1935 / silent / 16 min.
Made with John Mathias, this documentary examines both the year-round work of lobster fishermen in Sussex, and the life cycle of their catch living on the ocean floor.
DO NOT DISTURB
USA / 1945 / silent / 18 min.
Moholy-Nagy directed this film with a group of his hepcat students at the Institute of Design in Chicago, influenced by industrial design and advertising. A noir-ish atmosphere permeates the stylishly abstract scenery, full of saturated colors, lighting gels, split screens, prisms, and myriad other tricks spill out onto the screen, done with the panache and enthusiasm for which he was well-known.
Total program time: 89 minutes.