Four New Bauhaus/Institute of Design Films
In 2013 the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA a grant to photo-chemically preserve four additional films from the archives. FACES AND FORTUNES, DISINTEGRATION LINE #1, DISINTEGRATION LINE #2, and ADAM’S FILM all reflect the influence of the “American Bauhaus” movement introduced by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy during the late 30s/early 40s in Chicago. Designer and filmmaker team Morton and Millie Goldsholl were students at the School of Design in the 40s. The impact Moholy-Nagy had on them was immediate and concrete. The couple moved their already successful design studio to a larger space in Northfield, IL and added a film department that was headed up by Millie. Larry Janiak was one of their first employees at their film studio.
These four films are early and stellar expressions of the mid-century Bauhaus influence in Chicago.
This sponsored film from Chicago’s Goldsholl Design & Film Associates captures the lively world of pre-1960s advertising through animation and collage techniques. As a filmic treatise on corporate identity, Faces and Fortunes explores the legacy and importance of “personality” achieved through the branding practices of industries, organizations and companies. The film was sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, produced & directed by Morton Goldsholl, conceived by Millie Goldsholl and executed by Wayne Boyer, Larry Janiak and Millie.
The only existing prints of Faces and Fortunes in our collection were extremely color faded. Thanks to a grant from the NFPF and to the talented folks over at Colorlab, the film has been color corrected back to its original glory and put back onto 16mm film.
A visual collage experiment that combines live action footage with abstract images and textures drawn directly on 16mm film. The soundtrack consists of assorted tape loops, while the live action footage captures scenes from an early Chicago Earth Day parade and a casual Janiak family gathering. Inspired by musique concrète and the work and writings of John Cage and Gertrude Stein.
A direct animation film featuring black and white full frame motion as opalescent as the dancing night sky. The abstract animation field textures subtly depict the infinitesimal nuclei of energy called Tanmatra, a moving field of aggregates of atoms and cosmic motion called the dance of Shiva. (Larry Janiak).
An optically printed full color randomly animated film set to Gamelan music. Full field abstract images progress in subtle visual sequences in discernible steps of intensity. DL2 is a film expressing the spirituality in art, a view of the cosmos as dancing atoms. (Larry Janiak).
We are so pleased to have this opportunity to preserve modernist titles in our collections. To date CFA has shepherded the photochemical and digital preservation of 91 Chicago and Midwest films with the support of the National Film Preservation Foundation, the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. We plan to keep this number growing in order to create a complex and nuanced portrait of our region for generations to come.
All four titles were preserved by folks over at Colorlab.