What to expect
Harry A. Pollard’s production was Universal’s first sound feature, placing an old and heavily mediated story at a moment of major technological transition.
How to ease in
Listen to how synchronised sound organises a film still dependent on silent performance. Keep the history of racist stage adaptation visible alongside the technical experiment.
Heads-up
Stowe’s antislavery novel receives a large-scale late-silent adaptation issued with synchronised music and sound effects but no audible dialogue.
A new sound technology does not make an inherited image new or innocent. I listen for the future of cinema while watching the burden of an older performance tradition remain in the frame.
Open the note ↓
A new sound technology does not make an inherited image new or innocent. I listen for the future of cinema while watching the burden of an older performance tradition remain in the frame.
— Momo
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