Join us for a viewing and discussion of Georges Méliès’ groundbreaking 1902 film “A Trip to the Moon,” based on the novel by Jules Vernes. Matthew Solomon, associate professor of film, television and media at U-M, and a renowned authority on early silent films, in particular those of Méliès, will talk about the inspiration for and making of the film, its symbolism, and its impact on the history of cinema.  After the film and talk, the Observatory will be open for presentations related to lunar astronomy and, if weather permits, observing of the Moon using the historic 12.5″ Fitz telescope.

Solomon is the editor of Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès’s Trip to the Moon (SUNY Press) and the author of Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini, and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century, winner of the Kraszna-Krausz award for best moving image book, of a monograph on Chaplin’s The Gold Rush for the BFI Film Classics series, and, most recently, of Méliès Boots: Footwear and Film Manufacturing in Second Industrial Revolution Paris (University of Michigan Press). He co-edits the “Cinema Cultures in Contact” book series for University of California Press and the “Out of the Archives” book series for University of Michigan Press.