Hannah Pitstick
Hannah Pitstick is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and MFA candidate studying Film & Media Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Hannah worked with Cinelab to create her thesis project, which required special 16mm and 35mm work prints that she could paint on by hand. Read about the process in Hannah’s own words.
“My short film consists of four chapters tied together with a hand-tinted shadow play. Over the four chapters, we watch my protagonist (a siren-magician-witch-woman) traverse different genres of early cinema as she develops agency and seeks a community of fellow freaks.
“I have always loved the look of those early hand-painted films and wanted to see if I could recreate the process today. I started by experimenting with shooting and painting on 16mm Tri-X using watercolors, but the goal was always to work with 35mm film because it would provide a larger canvas.
“Kodak doesn't sell 35mm Tri-X motion picture film, so I decided to shoot my thesis on 35mm Double-X black & white negative film and have Cinelab make a workprint for me to paint on.
“I am almost done shooting the film, so now I intend to spend the rest of my days channeling the women who colored those first films as I paint the 35mm workprint one frame at a time. Although this is an arguably insane thing to do, I take comfort in knowing AI would never.”
Learn more about Hannah’s work:
“My thesis project involves reimagining hand-painted films from the dawn of cinema, namely the work of Georges Méliès. As there was only black & white film stock available at the turn of the 19th century, color was applied to movie prints by hand, typically by hundreds of uncredited women in an assembly line fashion.