Colour Tales

“These ‘photographic films’ are all of the most beautiful effect and, without exception, depict interesting and sometimes comical events….(Toy catalogue of the Bing company from 1902)

Films from middle-class children’s rooms from 100 years ago: Fairy tales, magic tricks, everyday life – and again and again images of war. Contemporary retouching. Splashes of colour, rust, film dirt and damage.

Tinted, toned, stencil coloured and hand-coloured 35 mm silent film fragments from the period around 1900-1930. Found in boxes of toy cinematographs, dust blown off, carefully unrolled, scanned frame by frame, stabilised and re-animated. Some fragments are from short film classics and weekly newsreels, but nothing is known about other films. Then as now, they are material for your own associations and stories. The themes are topical.

Scan, re-animation, editing: Betina Kuntzsch
Thanks to Casa Planas Archive, FFA