Last weekend I was attending a conference in Boston and noticed on the schedule a paper entitled "The Gold Rush (1925) on the Other Side of the Pacific." The presentation wasn't really on Charlie or his work, but even so, the research the young Chinese graduate student was doing for her dissertation project-tracing the significant influence silent film had (she was focusing in this talk just on silent comedy) on bringing western ideas and western lifeways to Shanghai China in the 1920s-I found exceptionally interesting. She had discovered, for instance, that Charlie's publicity machine had used the savvy strategy of sending seemingly personal Chinese New Year cards to citizens' homes, greeting them in the traditional Chinese way, but also taking the opportunity to introduce both himself and his latest film.
As this recent experience proves, the longevity-the immortality-of anything and anyone can be measured by the enthusiasm and dedication of the young people coming up for that something or someone. In this month's newsletter, I have interviewed three young Chaplin scholars who offer us a glimpse of the future. With the online Chaplin archive that Cineteca di Bologna is creating and the general opening-up of Chaplin's papers, records, etc. to research-all developments that have occurred only in the last five years or so-it will be ever more interesting to see the projects that arise. So much of the archive has been untouched by scholars; there is so much more to do. So perhaps this newsletter is as much a call to action as it is a peek into the research now being done. As a scholar myself, I look forward to the work and workers to come.
SK:
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee,
Sarah Kenney is a college student
at the University of Memphis,
studying film and technical theatre.
In her spare time, she works on
various theatrical events, directs
a puppet troupe of 14, and writes
short stories as well as scripts.
A Chaplin enthusiast, she hopes
to devote part of her future career
to the legacy of Charlie Chaplin
in the 21st century.
AD:
Andrea Dresseno was born in Vicenza,
Italy in 1980. After receiving
a high school diploma, he graduated
in 2006 in Art, Music and Film
at the University of Bologna,
with a dissertation about the
Chaplin Project, where he has
worked since 2002. Andrea has
also been writing for several
years for videogames magazines.
He currently lives in Bologna.
KL:
Kendra Lisum was born and raised
in Newton Falls, Ohio. Last October,
she was the featured student presenter
at The Buster Keaton Celebration
in Iola, Kansas where she spoke
on Mabel Normand. She recently
graduated with an English degree
from the University of Nevada,
Reno, and now resides in Missoula,
Montana.What motivated you to pursue scholarship on Charlie Chaplin?
SK: It all started when I saw him blowing smoke out of his ears while watching the Chaplin Today segment of the MK2 City Lights DVD. I had just finished watching City Lights and it was my second Chaplin film - the first was Modern Times, which I saw a couple months prior. So,
I'm sitting there and this clean-cut,
clean-shaven guy pops up on the screen
and the first thing that enters my mind
is, "who in the world is this guy and
why am I watching him when they're talking
about Chaplin?" Well, it cuts to a montage
of clips with Chaplin off-screen, and
suddenly I realize that I am watching
Chaplin. Talk about total shock. He was
in such stark contrast to the tramp I
had been watching. Then to put the icing
on the cake, I learned all in the span
of about twenty minutes just how powerful
he was in Hollywood and how famous he
was globally as well. Of course, I knew
absolutely nothing about him, though I'd
seen his iconic image and heard his name
when I was a kid. To make a long story
short - that's what hooked me on Chaplin.
It wasn't his films necessarily, but it
was who he was as an actor, director,
producer, composer, and world figure that
caught my interest, though I have fallen
in love with each one of his films in
a different way as well. Soon enough,
I figured out that my interest in Charlie
Chaplin went beyond that of a fan and
it became almost a daily game for me to
try and learn more about this man and
his work. Part of it is inspiration for
my own film career, but I think in larger
part I want other people to share in what
Chaplin has to offer, and that's going
to be different for each person. But they
have to know about him first, and I want
to put something out there that will contribute
to that knowledge whether it is a film,
a play, a musical, a book, or whatever
the future may require. Let's just say,
I've got ideas for all of those categories
and it's something I haven't seriously
thought about pursuing until just recently.
I feel that as we move farther away from
Chaplin's era, the world needs to be reminded
of who he was and what he did. Hopefully
a little of that will bleed into the 21st
century and transform our perceptions
as to what is truly exceptional and what
is mediocre. AD: The decision to dedicate my degree dissertation to Chaplin began from a practical standpoint. Collaborating as digitalizer to the Progetto Chaplin, I decided to create a "work diary," an overview on the studying, cataloguing and digitalizing process of the documents of the Chaplin Archive, thereby creating a dissertation that can be useful for similar projects in the future. Having the ability to access the archive everyday and to have an overall view of the material, I could extend my work with historical and critical elements, answering questions such as: When and how was the Chaplin Archive born? Why can this collection be regarded as an archive? What happens when an archive becomes digital? Not only is this a work instrument, but also an attempt to theorize the transformation that derives from digital preservation.
KL: I have decided to pursue Charlie Chaplin scholarship because, in short,
I love to laugh. And in Chaplin,
I found a type of humor that was real,
tangible, and (at least to my world),
a type of humor that I had never seen
before. The first time I saw a Charlie
Chaplin film, I was in a small room with
about five or six other college students.
We had to watch Modern Times
for a required class. We were not exactly
thrilled to be spending our afternoon
watching an old, black and white, and
a - horror of horrors - (mostly) silent
film. But as the film began, I started
to chuckle. Soon I was laughing. Then
it was tears-in-the-eyes, side-clutching
laughter. I adored the film. And I was
intrigued with the fact that there was
something about the iconic image of the
Tramp and the fact that while I had never
seen one of his films, the name Charlie
Chaplin was almost innately ingrained
in my psyche. I wanted to know why I seemed
to know him and his comedy, and yet why
it was still all so new to me. So I watched another film. And then another. Soon, I was reading books on Chaplin, and I realized what an influence he was on nearly all aspects of our modern culture. Chaplin's comedy, to me, is like the prototype of comedy - he perfected it to the point that everything that has happened since is somehow diluted, and certainly not as funny.
What special challenges have you encountered in this quest?
SK: I wish I had known
about Chaplin when I took my first two
film classes. It would have helped me
out a great deal. However, this semester
I will be given the opportunity to do
two or three small projects involving
Chaplin and I have written a twenty-page
research paper on him in the past. That
was an adventure all unto itself, especially
since the professor was a Buster Keaton
fan and preferred him to Chaplin.
I think the most poignant project, though,
has been my website.
I've designed it
so that it is not stagnant. My research
on Chaplin is done nearly every day and
if I find something of particular interest,
I'll post it on my site in the form of
a blog. Also, I've been working on updating
the site and will be adding more pages
to it in the near future. The blog is
very demanding, because my visitors expect
it to be updated regularly, which is sometimes
hard to do while I'm in school. Some of
my information comes from the Internet,
a small portion has come from journals,
and quite a bit has come from books. When
I get a random idea (which most of mine are), I
store it away in my head until
I can research it. But the blog
has been a wonderful writing exercise
for me. There are times when I
am just relaying information I've
found and then there are times
when I write original articles.
Currently, I am working on a page
about Chaplin's films. This is
a huge undertaking because of
the specific information I want
to use for each film. At the same
time, I'm trying to be careful
about copyrights and not put anything
up that will get me in trouble.
As I look upon the whole experience,
it is a way for me to catalogue
my research and at the same time
prepare me for future, more serious
scholarship opportunities.
AD: The most
difficult challenge in this work
was to penetrate a subject, Archival
Science, which I had never encountered
before in my studying experience.
It was necessary to understand
the mechanisms governing the preservation
of the archives. Finding a balance
between practical and theoretical
purposes was also particularly
challenging. The original descriptive
and report work soon brought forth
some theoretical issues of digital
conservation.
KL: The first
project I worked on with Charlie
Chaplin as the subject was for
yet another college course. We
were to write an informative essay
on a subject about which we were
knowledgeable. Stemming from my
original interest in Chaplin,
I wanted to write about the social
significance and influence of
all his films. The problem, however,
was that the deadline was in two
weeks and the professor wanted
a five-page paper, not a book.
Since 
I had recently watched The
Great Dictator, and was bowled
over by the fact that it was released
in 1940, I decided to focus on
that film alone. (I didn't know
this until after I had seen the
film, so I had just assumed it
was made in the fifties, or sometime
after the war - never in my dreams
did I think it was made during.)
I took stacks of Chaplin books
from the library and set to work,
analyzing the film and setting
it into the proper historical
context. The greatest challenge
was trying to add something about
the film that was original, that
had not been said before. With
so much Chaplin literature in
existence, I found it
daunting and very difficult to separate
myself from the scholars and actually
look at the film through my own eyes and
from my own perspective. Since this project,
I have learned to watch a film and to
analyze (and trust) my own reactions to
it before I turn to the books. This way,
I am able to capture my perspective before
it's drowned in the often overwhelming
scholarship on the subject.
Do you feel
that the Chaplin archives are accessible
to you and do you see yourself utilizing
them in the future? Why or why not? 
SK: I certainly hope
so! Living in the United States creates
a bit of a challenge location wise, but
I know that there are ways of funding
the trip, especially if you are still
in school. All you need is an idea for
why you want to go over there. I can see
myself spending a week in Bologna. For
some of the ideas I have, I would imagine
that access to the archives will be essential
for research purposes, just because I
don't know if the information resides
anywhere else. I mean, what could be cooler
than looking at Chaplin's production notes
scribbled on the margin of a script? You
can't get that anywhere else. I know that's
not everyone's dream, but for me it's
a big part of history in the making. I
was ecstatic when I got to see a letter
he wrote to his brother Sydney displayed
at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in Los
Angeles. That was just one letter - imagine
what the archives are like. It'll probably
be like the scene from The Kid
when the Tramp finds himself in a proverbial
heaven during a dream?well, all except
for the vamping part. I could do without
that.
AD: The distinctive
feature of the Progetto Chaplin is that
the "digital archive," as I called it
in my degree dissertation, is going to
replace the physical archive, which will
be preserved away from the public. The
Chaplin Archive will somehow never be
accessible to the user -- its digital
counterpart will be. My experience is
certainly distinctive: I enter the archive
everyday, so I have never had to come
to Bologna expressly to consult it. In
the future, when the project ends, I hope
to consult the archive not as someone
who is working on it, but as a simple
curious person who is keen on cinema.
KL:
I do feel the Chaplin archives are accessible
to me. I have confidence that if I had the
funding to undertake a project in which
I need the archives, I would have no
problem getting in touch with someone
who could help me. The website has been
very informative and inviting.
What could
be done in particular to facilitate yourfuture success in CC scholarship?
SK: There are several
things, but the most important to me
is probably having a mentor in the whole
process. Just as I knew nothing about
Chaplin when I first watched his films
two years ago, I know virtually nothing
about scholarship right now. The best
thing I can do, besides honing my research
skills and developing ideas, is to learn
from someone who's been involved with
scholarship for a while. I'm sure that
down the road I'll need the expertise
of those who have completed projects
on Chaplin and who have been to the
archives. If all they do is answer questions
or give me some guidance when I might
be having a hard time with something
in particular, it'll be a tremendous
help. It already has to a certain extent.
The other thing is the completion of
the archive on the Internet. Right
now no one has access to it beyond searches.
But I can still use it to give me some
idea as to what is available in case
I plan to go over there and actually
implement research on a project.
AD: I already graduated
one year ago and for the time being
I am not planning further research on
Chaplin.
KL: This is a tough question because everyone has been very helpful and supportive. People are receptive to my questions and tolerant of my ignorance. The only thing I would like more of, perhaps, is more people to talk to who could help point me in the right direction in terms of getting started in the field. I want to know everything I can about Chaplin and his works, and sometimes I'm just not sure where to begin due to the fact that there is so much out there. It can be overwhelming and I'm not sure where to begin to achieve the success I would like.