This book is dedicated to colour in silent cinema before 1930, and it features a selection of essays originally presented at the conference, The Colour Fantastic: Chromatic Worlds of Silent Cinema, that took place in 2015 at EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. It was convened by Giovanna Fossati (EYE Filmmuseum and University of Amsterdam) and the Leverhulme Trust-funded research project Colour in the 1920s: Cinema and Its Intermedial Contexts led by Sarah Street (University of Bristol) and Joshua Yumibe (Michigan State University).

The conference celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the groundbreaking Amsterdam Workshop Colours in Silent Film by providing a new forum to explore contemporary archival and academic debates around colour in the silent era. The use of colour in silent cinema was, for many years, a neglected aspect of film history but thanks, in large part, to the 1995 workshop, the last twenty years have seen the topic receive increasing attention from scholars and archivists. During this period, the importance of colour in silent cinema and the extent of its presence have been revealed to be of a much greater scale and significance than previously thought. This book reflects on the Colours in Silent Film workshop, revisiting key topics from the original event and looking at how more recent research sheds light on these issues. In addition, it considers the new directions research into silent colour has taken by exploring a diverse range of archival and academic topics.

The examination of colour in cinema during the silent period remains significant today, particularly in light of the digital revolution that has seen not only an explosion in colour in new digital media, but has also digitally transformed the options for preserving and restoring the chromatic elements of film and media. By examining colour in silent cinema, its uses, and the contemporary discourses surrounding colour's power and function, we can better understand the chromatic developments of the 21st century's digital age.

THE AMSTERDAM WORKSHOPS

Since the opening of the EYE Filmmuseum in 2012, it has provided an international forum for archival and scholarly research through its annual EYE International Conference, which hosted the Orphan Film Symposium in 2014 and The Colour Fantastic: Chromatic Worlds of Silent Cinema in 2015.