these went by several names, ultimately becoming best known as the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable." In addition to the Velvet Underground, the Exploding Plastic Inevitables featured simultaneous mixes of strobe lights, dancers, colored slides and film projections. Advertisements for the events held in the spring of 1966 in New York's East Village mention Empire among other Warhol films to be screened. Legacy Warhol withdrew most of his film catalog (including Empire) from circulation in 1972. Film historian Callie Angell observed that the inaccessibility of the film until some years after Warhol's death in 1987, along with the assumption that a film such as Empire must be unwatchable, gave Empire a life mainly as an idea about a film that expressed Warhol's outrageousness as an artist, with some accounts lengthening it to 10 or 24 hours. In 1988, the film began to be screened again as part of the cataloguing and restoration of Warhol's films undertaken by several institutions. In 1992, the original negative was rediscovered and used to make new prints of the film. Mechanical projectors capable of showing the film at 16 frames per second have become rarer since the 1970s, with most current machines capable of a minimum speed of 18 frames per second; when projected at this rate, the film is about seven hours and 10 minutes long. Empire is currently distributed by the Museum of Modern Art's Circulating Film and Video Library both in its full length and in a 46-minute edit. See also Andy Warhol filmography List of American films of 1965 List of longest films Notes Sources cited External links Empire essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 601-602 Newspaper advertisements for Empire (and other Warhol films) Image of March 6, 1965 Empire premiere invitation co-crediting Warhol and John Palmer as directors 1965 films American independent films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Empire State Building Films directed by Andy Warhol Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City One-shot films United States National Film Registry films 1960s American films