The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has unveiled two new exhibitions exploring how science has impacted technology, aesthetics and storytelling in cinema Oct. 6.
“Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema,” investigates the role of color in film while “Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema” will examine the global impact of the science fiction subgenre cyberpunk on cinema culture.
Senior Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel curated “Color in Motion” with the help of assistant curator Sophia Serrano, curatorial assistant Manouchka Kelly Labouba and research assistant Alexandra James Salichs.
Niebel explained knowledge about the history of color in film is lacking and propelled her team to craft an exhibit that would engage and educate audiences about the area. She highlighted the power of film colors as a storytelling device to create meaning and tone throughout a narrative.
“With every new color technology, there were new ways of cinematic expression,” Niebel said. “When cinema was invented, it was the media that could document motion…now add color art to it, these are two pillars of our art form.”
Niebel also discussed the challenges of curating this exhibit pertained to capturing the 130-year-spanning history of color in film from the beginning.
“It took quite a while…we experimented, we failed, we tried different things,” Niebel said. She wanted to include contemporary cinema while teaching visitors about prevalent moments in the history of film color, such as the role women played in early color production. “Once we had that concept, we could fill with objects, film clips that we felt were representative of that particular subject matter.”
Niebel hopes visitors will visit the monochrome film installation. This portion of the exhibit, which incorporates scanning technology known as Scan2Screen, recreates footage using tinted 1920s film clips from archives in Amsterdam, Berlin and additional places.
“I don’t think anything like that has ever been seen in a museum or a theater,” Niebel said. “For the first time, we have color-authentic film clips. It creates this really immersive, kaleidoscopic color experience.”
Doris Berger, vice president of curatorial affairs, curated the “Cyberpunk” exhibit with assistant curator Nicholas Barlow and curatorial assistant Emily Rauber Rodriguez.
“We wanted to figure out an exhibit that relates arts and sciences through storytelling in cinema,” Berger said. “It teaches you about themes and motifs of cyberpunk without you having to read a bunch of texts, but you are embedded in it.”
Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema.
Joshua White / ©Academy Museum Foundation
Berger encourages visitors to check out the exhibit’s centerpiece, an installation exploring cyberpunk visuals with a scripted voice-over from writer-director Alex Rivera. This feature traces the genre’s 20th-century origins through a list of selected films such as “Neptune Frost,” “Alita: Battle Angel” and “Night Raiders.”
Berger highlighted “The Matrix” as a prominent cinematic example of how people interact with digital environments and systems, a central trope of the cyberpunk canon itself.
“In the 80s it was mega corporations, capitalism. If you look at indigenous futurist films, it’s colonialism,” Berger said. “They’re all related to how characters rebel against systems of oppression with technological means.”
Berger also said she is excited for cyberpunk cinema to expand internationally and that the experience of curating this exhibit enlightened her mind into the history of science fiction films in other countries.
“You only have a place in the future if you envision your community there,” Berger said. “This is a key for indigenous futurist films, for Afro-futurist films.”
She added how the “Cyberpunk” exhibit gives audiences an exclusive vantage point into aspects of iconic films such as how makeup was applied to Arnold Schwarzenegger for “The Terminator” as well as the specific materials used to create the Tron costume in the 1982 science fiction feature “Tron.”
“Looking behind the curtain, revealing some classical cinema techniques was a real joy,” Berger said.
Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema
Joshua White / ©Academy Museum Foundation
