Unidentified Films

< Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation – films and documents

The following is an identification exercise devised in a spirit of free exchange and discovery. It uses a number of unidentified photographs and film frames from the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé collection.

The selected photographs come from the wonderful Maurice Gianati fonds, which holds more than 3,500 items dating from 1901 to 1929 (thankfully almost all identified!).

The film frames come from the Fondation’s silent film collection, which was donated by Pathé in 2015 and is made up of nearly 4,000 film elements.

When seeking to identify films and photographs, researchers and curators use film summaries and synopses, programmes, inscriptions on the photograph or film, printing and duplication processes, etc.

And yet some films and photographs stubbornly refuse to reveal their secrets…

By sharing this small set of unidentified films and photographs, we seek to offer a playful new way to explore film heritage through the Fondation’s vast collections.