Masters of American Animation, 1914–1998

Film

No upcoming events

Confessions of a Stardreamer. 1978. USA. Directed by John Canemaker. Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Stills Archive

Celebrating the publication of The Art of John Canemaker: An Animator's Garden (2026), Canemaker, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker, joins us to present a Saturday matinee of new digital restoration premieres of classic American animation, from Winsor McCay’s beloved Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) and cartoons starring Krazy Kat, Mutt & Jeff, Betty Boop, and Felix the Cat, to John and Faith Hubley’s Dig (1972), with its driving funk score by Quincy Jones, and Canemaker’s own Confessions of a Stardreamer (1978) and Bridgehampton (1998). Following the screening on January 17 outside Titus 1, Canemaker will sign copies of his new book The Art of John Canemaker: An Animator's Garden. All have been restored by MoMA from materials in its unparalleled collection of films and artwork by New York–based independent animation filmmakers. The program repeats as a Saturday matinee (without Canemaker’s introduction) on January 31.

Bridgehampton. 1998. USA. Directed by John Canemaker. DCP. 6 min.
Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art.
Gertie the Dinosaur. 1914. USA. Directed by Winsor McCay. DCP. Silent. 12 min.
Restoration by Brandon Adams and RockinPins.com.
Krazy Kat in The Awful Spook. 1920. USA. Directed by Vernon Stallings. DCP. Silent. 3 min.
Restoration by Brandon Adams.
Wicked City. 1926. USA. Directed by Paul Terry. DCP. Silent. 7 min.
Restoration produced by RockinPins.com.
Mutt & Jeff in the Globe Trotters. 1927. USA. Directed by Charles Bowers, Bud Fisher. DCP. Silent. 8 min.
Restoration by Brandon Adams and RockinPins.com.
Woos Whoopee. 1928. USA. Directed by Otto Messmer. DCP. Silent. 6 min.
Restoration produced by RockinPins.com and Silver Lake Shorts.
Confessions of a Stardreamer. 1978. USA. Directed by John Canemaker. DCP. 9 min.
Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art.
Swat the Fly. 1935. USA. Directed by Dave Fleischer, Dave Tendlar. DCP. 6 min.
Hawaiian Birds. 1936. USA. Directed by Dave Fleischer, Myron Waldman. DCP. 8 min.
Restored by Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored.
Dig. 1972. USA. John Hubley, Faith Hubley. World preservation premiere. DCP. 25 min.
Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with funding from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

Program approx. 90 min.

This film accompanies To Save and Project: The 22nd MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation.

Past events

Sat, Jan 31, 12:00 p.m.

Piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
Sat, Jan 17, 1:30 p.m.

Introduced by John Canemaker; book signing follows screening

Piano accompaniment by Ben Model

MoMA, Floor T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].