Film Record: Manhatta

Screen capture from Manhatta

Identifier:

• 1942 (Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/94217?artist_id=5383&locale=en&sov_referrer=artist)

Date produced: 1921

Filmmaker(s):

Charles Sheeler

Paul Strand

Country of Production:

United States

Languages:

English

Duration:

00:09:00

Length:

646 ft

Format:

35mm

Colour:

B&W

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

Included in the Unseen Cinema Project.
National Film Registry (U.S.) 1995

Description:

"In 1921, Sheeler and Strand collaborated to make Manhatta, considered to be the first American avant-garde film. Inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "Mannahatta," which is quoted in one of the intertitles, the film portrays life in New York City in sixty-five nonnarrative shots. The sequences display one epic day in Lower Manhattan, beginning with a ferry approaching the city in early morning and ending with a sunset view from a skyscraper. Shot from extreme camera angles, the film captures the dynamic qualities of the new metropolis" Museum of Modern Art (New York), Department of Film.

Resources:

An article about the film was written in the New York Times entitled "Avant-Garde, 1920 Vintage, Is Back in Focus" by Dave Kehr, November 6, 2008.
Manhatta is available on a single DVD or on Disc 5 of the Unseen Cinema boxed set project 'Picturing a Metropolis: NYC Revealed'.
See Bruce Posner's examination of the film from the Unseen Cinema project

Locations:

• New York City, New York (Filming)

Subjects:

• North America
•      United States
•           New York (State)
•               New York (N.Y.)

Genre:

• Adaptation
• Experimental

Form:

• Short

Tags:

Repository:

Museum of Modern Art

Screenings:

• Screened twice at MoMa in November, 2008 as part of museum's sixth annual festival of preserved and restored international films, 'To Save and Project': New York City, New York

Video Link:

• Manhatta on YouTube

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