This year, NYWIFT is again proud to be a participant in MoMA’s Save and Project series with special screenings of Christine Of The Big Tops, written by Sonya Levien, and three short films by Margaret Conneely, works that have been restored and preserved by The Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF).

Founded by NYWIFT in 1995 in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art, the Fund identifies and preserves Americans films in which women have played a significant creative role.

Christine of the Big Tops (1926)
Screenwriter: Sonya Levien
35mm, 60 min., silent, B/W
This roaring twenties’ romantic melodrama unfolds under the circus big top! Written by Sonya Levien, who also penned The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Christine of the Big Tops follows the love affair between Christine, an orphaned trapeze artist, and Bob, a traumatized doctor who has taken refuge in the circus. When a storm destroys the big top, injuring Christine, will Bob have the courage to perform emergency surgery?


Three Short Films (1959-1962)
Director: Margaret Conneely
16mm, 30 min., sound, color
These three short films — Mister E (1959), The ’45 (1960) and Chicago: City to See in ’63 (1962) — represent the peak of amateur filmmaking in the late 1950s and early 60s. Conneely imbues stories of normal domestic life with a seemingly light and innocent humor which has, in fact, a sadistic dimension so nuanced, viewers don’t know why they’re squirming in their seats.

The films will be shown together on Sunday Nov. 1 @ 5:30pm in Titus 1,
repeated on Wednesday Nov. 4 @ 4:30pm in Titus 1