The Children's Cinema

Presented by R. Emmet Sweeney and Alice Janes-Sweeney

This program is co-curated by a kid! R. Emmet Sweeney asked his nine-year-old daughter Alice to select some of her favorite YouTube memes, the ones she endlessly quotes with her friends at school. They naturally broke down into three themes: Cats, Pop Music, and Horror. Rob then paired them with a selection of silent films and experimental works to prove that so-called “brainrot” has roots in early and experimental cinema, what former Light Industry guest Tom Gunning called “the cinema of attractions”. So you’ll see one of the first close-ups (1903’s The Sick Kitten) alongside an earworm meme of a headbobbing kitty (2024’s Chipi chipi chapa chapa cat), a mind-melting KPop Demon Hunters remix leading into abstract animation set to an Oscar Peterson beat (Begone Dull Care, 1949), and the unspeakable abyssal terror of dead-eyed CGI gummy bears (Ich Bin Dein Gummibar, 2017) followed by silent ghostly experiments from Segundo de Chomón and Buster Keaton…and more! Happy Halloween!

Cats

Chipi chipi chapa chapa cat, CatsMakeLifeGood, 2024, 14 secs
The Sick Kitten, George Albert Smith, 1903, 35 secs
A Little Hero, George Nichols, 1913, 4 mins
How to Draw a Cat, Pola Chapelle, 1973, 16mm, 3 mins
Cat Listening to Music, Chris Marker, 1988, 3 mins

Pop

I sped up “Takedown” every time those baddies said “Takedown”, Cheesecake’s Life, 2025, 90 secs
Begone Dull Care, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren, 1949, 8 mins
APT x Lava Chicken, EM, 2025, 41 secs
All My Life, Bruce Baillie, 1966, 16mm, 3 mins

Horror

Ich Bin Dein Gummibar, The Official Gummibär Channel, 2017, 3 mins
An Interesting Story, James Williamson, 1904, 4 minutes
The House of Ghosts, Segundo de Chomón, 1906, 6 minutes
The Haunted House, Buster Keaton, 1921, 20 minutes

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