Project Detail

Her Name Was Moviola

Synopsis

A cinematic love letter to the Moviola film editing machine, led by Academy Award winning editor Walter Murch, detailing how it dominated English-language filmmaking for most of the 20th century.
Invented in 1922, the Moviola remained for a long time the dominant machine for editing film in English-language cinema. Mastering it allowed an editor, in tandem with the director and producer, to create a language and rhythm within a film. Her Name Was Moviola sees Academy Award® -winning sound and film editor Walter Murch working with a team to rebuild a Moviola editing suite to take us through the process of how a film was pieced together. Using two scenes from Mike Leigh’s 2014 drama Mr. Turner – reverse-engineered from digital to 35mm prints – Murch and his collaborators take us through the way the Moviola was employed to bring a multitude on individual shots together into one cohesive narrative. It’s a riveting deep-dive into a process that is key to every form of filmmaking.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2024 - World premiere

Details

Year
2024
Type of project
Features
Running time
70 min
Format
Digital, 4K
Director
Howard Berry 1st Feature
Producer
Howard Berry
Co-Producer
Richard Craske
Editor
Howard Berry
Screenwriter
Walter Murch
Director of Photography
George Nicholls
Sound
Mike Wyeld
Principal cast
Walter Murch, Dan Farrell, Howard Berry, Mike Leigh

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

The Curators! Ltd.

2 Beecroft Lane
Walkern
Herts
SG2 7PE

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Director: David Borenstein (director), Pavel Talankin (co-director)

Year: 2025

A Russian teacher secretly documents his small town school's transformation into a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face amid propaganda and militarization. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2025 - World premiere Official Selection CPH DOX 2025 Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2025 BAFTA Awards 2026 - Winner - Best Documentary Academy Awards 2026 - Winner - Best Documentary Feature

A Few Moments of Happiness (Quelques instants de bonheur) A Few Moments of Happiness (Quelques instants de bonheur)

Director: Shaden Safieddine Tazi

Year: 2026

A young Lebanese filmmaker in Paris watches Lebanon's war unfold on her phone from bed. In a state of paralysis, barely able to get out of bed, she calls her father everyday and begins recording her digital life. Using screen recordings, family voices, and silences, the film intimately portrays a generation witnessing their homeland's destruction remotely. Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere

Test Track (Tesztpálya) Test Track (Tesztpálya)

Director: Lydia Cornett

Year: 2026

At dawn in Western Hungary, 14-year-old Hunor and his family use greyhounds to clear wildlife from ZalaZONE, a cutting-edge autonomous vehicle test track. Their traditional methods serve an increasingly militarized future. Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere