Before the Muppets, Jim Henson made a nine-minute wordless short about a man whose pulse becomes a drumbeat, and it earned him an Academy Award nomination and a year-long run at a Manhattan art house. Time Piece is jump-cut, stop-motion, flow-of-consciousness filmmaking, and Karen Falk of the Jim Henson Company opens the original production files afterward.
What to expect
A screening of the nine-minute 1965 short, followed by an in-depth presentation from Karen Falk, archives director of The Jim Henson Company and vice president of The Jim Henson Legacy, drawing on Henson's original production files and photography. Presented courtesy of The Jim Henson Company.
Good to know
- The film itself runs about nine minutes; the archival presentation is the bulk of the program
- Time Piece was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film
- Part of MoMI's Henson birthday weekend, which fills the whole museum with programming
- Museum of the Moving Image is at 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, closest to 36 Av on the M and R
- The Jim Henson Exhibition is on view in the galleries if you want to make a day of it
Planning Sep 25–27, 2026 in NYC?
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Common questions
What is Time Piece?
Jim Henson's 1965 experimental short — nine minutes, largely wordless, built around a pulse that turns into a percussive score by Don Sebesky. Henson himself plays the man in the hospital bed.
Who is presenting?
Karen Falk, archives director of The Jim Henson Company and vice president of The Jim Henson Legacy, sharing material from Henson's original production files.
