theBLMC    The LIU Brooklyn Library Media Center Newsletter     We love movies, among other things.

March 2012, issue 62 Past Issues Brooklyn Library Media Center LIUCAT LIU Brooklyn Other sites we like: BAM Rose Cinemas Film Forum Internet Movie Database Facets Multi-Media Open Source Shakespeare The Criterion Collection The Museum of the Moving Image  Women Make Movies California Newsreel American Film Institute Anthology Film Archives Brooklyn Information and Culture Sunset Gun Trailers from Hell The Movie Title Stills Collection This issue of  BLMC is brought to you all the way from the back row by Media Assistant and secret automaton Patrick Jewell.  Tell your friends.

"Billy Wilder. Billy Wilder. Billy Wilder." -- Michel Hazanavicius, Oscar-winning director of The Artist, in his acceptance speech. Papa Georges Best Picture honors at the Academy Awards went to The Artist, a French film that seeks to recapture a kind of joyous Hollywood golden age, and that is itself the first silent film to win Best Picture in some eighty years.  Another favorite at the Oscars was Martin Scorsese's latest picture, Hugo, based on the richly illustrated graphic novel/chapter book hybrid, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.  Hugo, like The Artist, is a film that loves films. It would be very hard for me to successfully convey to you just how much I enjoyed Hugo.  I think it ranks with the finest Scorsese films and with the best film experiences I've ever had.  It is the story of a boy and his father, of an artist who has turned his back on his art, of an orphan's adventuresome friendship with a young girl, of an automaton and its secret message, and it's also the story of the early days of film.  It is ravishingly beautiful, complex, and haunting.  I'll say no more about the story; see it for yourself.  Scorsese's lifelong love of cinema pours from every frame of the film, and he has a chance to celebrate not only the life of Georges Melies (see more below about "Papa Georges"), but to give cameos to great silent films like Safety Last, with its iconic image of Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock high above the street, and to film legends like Louise Brooks, Douglas Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin. If seeing Hugo or The Artist makes you the least bit curious about the early days of film, then make the Media Center the first stop on your journey.  We have hundreds of examples of silent film in our collection, going far beyond the clips featured in Hugo. In particular, we have a five-CD set that includes 173 films by Papa Georges, Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913). Melies was a stage magician who became fascinated by the possibilities of the moving picture after he saw the work of the Lumiere Brothers.  He loved to exploit the tricks of the medium and is considered one of the pioneers in special effects, concocting marvelous images of fantasy and whimsy.  We scratch the surface here.  Come up and see us, and we can point you to more gems of early cinema from around the world.  Win $100 in the BLMC Challenge! Just inside the third floor entrance of the Library, there is a display case filled with 52 simple line drawings that represent films, documentaries, and TV shows in the Library Media Center collections.  How many can you correctly identify?  Grab a form and fill it out as completely as you can.  Some are easy, some are harder. Feel free to ask for help or do research (don’t forget to use LIUCAT).  The first student to name all the titles correctly will win $100!  You can work alone or in teams (although you’ll have to split the prize if you win). Turn in your form to the Media Center on the fifth floor of the library (you MUST come to the Media Center to enter the challenge). If no one has named all the titles by May 1^st, the prize will go to the entry that has the most correct answers.  In the event of a tie, there will be a tiebreaking set of additional drawings.  Students only. Winner will be announced May 1st! Good luck! DVD of the Month Brooklyn Boheme -- "An intimate portrait of the black arts movement that exploded in Fort Greene from the mid 1980s through the 90s as told by writer, historian and Brooklyn resident Nelson George"--IMDB.  Features Spike Lee, Vernon Reid, Rosie Perez, Lorna Simpson, Chris Rock, Branford Marsalis, and others.  Employee Art Exhibition Lisa Rivera, Charulata Dyal, and me, Patrick Jewell, are all participating in the Employee Art Exhibition, up all month long in the Salena Gallery, first floor LLC. "If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from, you look around... this is where they're made." -- Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), Hugo (2011) The LIU Brooklyn Library Media Center Rachel King, Media Librarian  (718) 488-1311 Rachel.King@liu.edu Patrick Jewell,  Media Staff  (718) 488-3392 Patrick.Jewell@liu.edu Lisa Rivera,  Media Staff  (718) 780-4378 Lisa.Cotton@liu.edu The LIU Brooklyn Library Media Center is located on the fifth floor of the LLC.  Come up and see us some time.