<I>Statues Hardly Ever Smile</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1971
name: label: Directed by
content: Stan Lathan, American, born 1945
label: Produced by
content: Chamba Productions, founded 1971
label: Created by
content: Kathleen Collins, American, 1942 - 1988
label: Produced by
content: Kent Garrett, American, born 1941
label: Subject of
content: Brooklyn Museum, American, founded 1895
label: Owned by
content: Pearl Bowser, American, 1931 - 2023
notes: label: Caption
content: 16mm color film directed by Stan Lathan and produced by Chamba Productions for the Brooklyn Museum about a program to bring children from the local community into the museum to create performance art. Includes footage of children interacting with objects in the museum and creating performances based upon their reaction.
label: Description
content: A short film with the title Statues Hardly Ever Smile. It was directed by Stan Lathan and produced by Chamba Productions about a program to bring children from the local community into the Brooklyn Museum to create performance art. There are four (4) prints of it: an answer print (2012.79.1.63.1a), an original print (2012.79.1.63.2a), and two other prints (2012.79.1.63.3a) and (2012.79.1.63.4a), all of which are 16mm acetate film with color and sound.
label: Description
content: The film begins with the camera panning around a room with many cases in the Brooklyn Museum. Children are heard in the voiceover narration describing the statues. The footage also includes close-ups of some of the statues. The next scene shows children and young adults following spoken directions to pretend they are holding various objects in their hands. The narrator describes how the children spent time in the rotunda of the museum for six weeks, and there is footage of the children participating in dance exercises in the rotunda. The narrator describes the idea for the project to bring children together with an object and create a performance around that.
label: Description
content: The next scene shows an object and children touching the face of another object. Some other children are shown in front of a different museum object and holding the same pose as that object. Children in the voiceover narration describe thinking about the objects and questioning what the people depicted in the objects are doing. As the narrator describes, the children participated in improvisation based on the space and the objects around them. The footage includes a group of students discussing how to put on an improvisation based on an object. The next scene shows the students performing the improvisation in the rotunda that they created. One of the boys reflects on how he did the improvisation.
label: Description
content: In the next scene, the students perform a dance while a man plays a drum. The next scene shows a man playing the piano and singing and the children sing along with him. The music accompanies a montage of the students doing various activities shown in the film. The final scene shows the students leaving the museum, a bus traveling a city street, one of the students exiting the bus and greeting some friends as the credits appear. The film ends with children playing in a circle on a playground.
place: label: Place filmed
content: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Children
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Dance
label: Topic
content: Education
label: Topic
content: Film
label: Topic
content: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Museums
label: Topic
content: Singers (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Theatre
label: Topic
content: Urban life
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: Pearl Bowser Collection
label: Classification
content: Time-based Media - Moving Images
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Pearl Bowser
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2012.79.1.63
objectType: label: Type
content: sound films
label: Type
content: color films (visual works)
label: Type
content: answer prints (motion pictures)
label: Type
content: short subjects
label: Type
content: 16mm (photographic film size)
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No Known Copyright Restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acetate film
label: Dimensions
content: Duration: 19 min.