Metropolis Refound
★ 5.4 · 2010 · 47m · Documentary
Argentinian film historians find a complete print of Fritz Lang's “Metropolis” (1927) at Buenos Aires Film Museum and take it to Germany for its restoration.
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Against the Grain
2023 · ★ 6.3
A glimpse at how genre film-focused home video companies have taken the charge in preserving, restoring, and releasing so many works which otherwise might have been lost to time.
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2011
Ben Model discusses scoring music for silent movies.
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Inside the Keystone Project
2010 · ★ 7
Documentary short regarding the preservation and restoration of the worldwide remains of the Keystone films.
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The Cemetery of Cinema
2023 · ★ 7.7
Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out with his camera in search of the birth of filmmaking in Guinea. Charming and determined, he traces his country’s film heritage and history and reveals the importance of film archives.
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Forgotten Treasure
1943 · ★ 7.3
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short highlights the film preservation efforts of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several scenes from early newsreels are shown.
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Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022 · ★ 7.8
Why are we still able, today, to view images that were captured over 125 years ago? As we enter the digital age, audiovisual heritage seems to be a sure and obvious fact. However, much of cinema and our filmed history has been lost forever. Archivists, technicians and filmmakers from different parts of the world explain what audiovisual preservation is and why it is necessary. The documentary is a tribute to all these professionals and their important work.
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Augusto San Miguel Died Yesterday
2003
During the 1920's, Augusto San Miguel (1905-1937) directed, produced and starred in the first feature films made in Ecuador. Unfortunately, San Miguel's films -like many episodes of his life- disappeared in time. The only remains are the movie ads on old newspapers and a mysterious legend, by which San Miguel was buried with his films.
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These Amazing Shadows
2011 · ★ 7.4
Tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself.
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Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
2011 · ★ 9
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).
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Rescuing a Fantasy Classic
2021 · ★ 7
A comprehensive and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the restoration process of restoring 3-strip Cinerama for the 1962 film "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm".
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Archive of Life
2024
This documentary short-film follows the story of The White Bus Cinema based in Southend-on-Sea. They keep the process of projecting real celluloid film alive by showing films from their archive of over 3,000 films, ranging from Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm prints. The film argues why it's important to continue the shooting and projection process of film in our current age of digital shooting and projection in modern Hollywood, amidst the chaos of studios removing films from their streaming services.
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Indian Summer
1960 · ★ 7
On the first hot day of summer, an old farmer goes fishing just as he has done for many years on the West Branch of the Delaware River. A young boy, his frequent fishing companion, eagerly takes him to see the first giant bulldozers, which are to begin construction on the Cannonsville Reservoir. In order to provide more water for the cities, the vast project will flood the valley. The old man goes to the general store and walks the length of the valley to talk about his concerns, but most people do not support him. The young people of the valley celebrate at a barn dance. The old man resists eviction with his unloaded flintlock. The next day, he watches as the houses and farms are burned to clear the way. His friend, the fiddler, picks him up and takes him and his few belongings away.
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