BUTTERFLIES, GEYSERS & MR EDISON - Films from 1897 - 1933 with piano accompaniment. A 50 minute programme showing the earliest and most extraordinary nature films. The only footage of the Waimangu geyser which between 1900 -1904 was the biggest geyser in the world, playing to heights of 460 m, the beautiful depiction of the carrot cayerpillar’s transformation to butterfly in colour , And a graphic view of White Island 'Nature's Laboratory....boiling sulphuric acid' and 'The 'Inferno'....a fuming solfataric wilderness'. + much more
THE FILM ARCHIVE PRESENTS
BUTTERFLIES, GEYSERS & MR EDISON
Films from 1897 - 1933 with piano accompaniment by Sue Alexander
National Library Auditorium, Monday 13 November @ 12.10pm
MR EDISON AT WORK IN HIS CHEMICAL LABORATORY 1897, .40
A single continuous shot showing Thomas Edison at work in a laboratory. Behind him are shelves of chemical bottles. The scene is lit by sunlight, which suggests that it was posed in a studio, possibly Edison's 'Black Maria' studio West Orange, New Jersey. An Edison Kinematograph was used for the first public screening of motion pictures in New Zealand on 13 October 1896.
UNE GRANDE DECOUVERTE 1905, 3.00
A little boy puts a cat in front of his father’s telescope installed to observe the moon. When his father looks through the telescope he sees the silhouette of a cat on the moon. Convinced that cats live on the moon, the man invites his colleagues to show them his big discovery. The trick is discovered and the boy punished for his folly. A Pathe production.
FIJI AND THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, 1907 (excerpt) 2.00
Steam rising from Waimangu Geyser (1900-1904) in Rotorua and Wairoa Geyser at Whakarewarewa. Waimangu was the biggest geyser in the world, playing to heights of 460 m between 1900 - 1904.
LA CHENILLE DE LA CAROTTE 1911, 7.00
The transformation of a black and white caterpillar living on a carrot plant into a brightly coloured butterfly. This film uses pathecolor, one of the earliest and most elaborate colour processes. Pathe.
Title in english: The Carrot Caterpillar
PATHE GAZETTE. GREAT VOLCANIC ERUPTION AT ROTORUA, 1917 1.00
The Frying Pan Flat Eruption of 1917. Clouds of white vapour rising from eruption; a mantlepiece still stands amongst the debris and ruins of what was once a sitting room; man walks amongst the ruins of a building.
MUTTONBIRDING 1921, 15.00
Shows the activities of James Morrison of Bluff and his family.
Women strip flax in preparation for the weaving of kete; cooking mutton birds. The birds are hand caught from the bush and then plucked and gutted. Men place the birds in the woven baskets which are then tied and hung. Once cooked the birds are taken by dinghy to a larger ship waiting in the harbour, which then delivers them to the wharf. Massey’s Pictures. Editorial restoration by the NZ Film Archive
PORTALS OF THE UNDERWORLD (WHITE ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND) 1927, 6.00
'Out in the Bay of Plenty, some sixty miles from Tauranga, lies White Island - the hissing head of a great volcano, almost sunk beneath the smiling waters of the Blue Pacific'.
Detailed in the film is 'Nature's Laboratory....boiling sulphuric acid' and 'The 'Inferno'....a fuming solfataric wilderness'. Produced by the New Zealand Government Publicity Office
THE PITCHER PLANT 192- 2.12
An examination of a botanical oddity. “The plant is insectivorous. It secretes its pitchers sufficent moisture to last over the dry periods.” A Pathe production
ETERNAL FIRES: NEW ZEALAND”S ONLY ACTIVE VOLCANO NGARUAHOE 1929. 8.55
Filmcraft workers from Filmcraft Studios in Miramar (including Len Mitchell) climbing snow covered Ngauruhoe. Government Publicity Office.
CHALLENGE AERATED SUPER, 1933 (excerpt) 4.00
Testing procedures take place in the modern laboratory.