Preservation / en 'Lost' silent film rediscovered by 91łÔąĎ Libraries /news/lost-silent-film-rediscovered-u-t-libraries <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">'Lost' silent film rediscovered by 91łÔąĎ Libraries</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-29-silent-film.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jr3v1PB- 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-29-silent-film.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=yWSQAxag 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-29-silent-film.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Z6lAxebG 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-29-silent-film.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jr3v1PB-" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-04-03T11:12:28-04:00" title="Monday, April 3, 2017 - 11:12" class="datetime">Mon, 04/03/2017 - 11:12</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">ZaSu Pitts from a scene in “Secrets of the Night” (1924)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/noreen-ahmed-ullah" hreflang="en">Noreen Ahmed-Ullah</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Noreen Ahmed-Ullah</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/film" hreflang="en">Film</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robarts" hreflang="en">Robarts</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/libraries" hreflang="en">Libraries</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/preservation" hreflang="en">Preservation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/culture" hreflang="en">Culture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/arts" hreflang="en">Arts</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A movie on the Library of Congress's list of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Lost%20silent.updated_122916.pdf">“Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films”</a> has recently been rediscovered thanks to a donation to 91łÔąĎ&nbsp;Libraries.</p> <p>The black-and-white&nbsp;murder mystery-melodrama comedy from the early 1920s&nbsp;boasts a&nbsp;cast of&nbsp;well-known actors from&nbsp;the time – James Kirkwood Sr., Madge Bellamy&nbsp;and ZaSu Pitts.</p> <p>Titled&nbsp;<em>Secrets of the Night,&nbsp;</em>the film&nbsp;was discovered by Media Commons Assistant Media Archivist <strong>Christina Stewart</strong>&nbsp;as she was looking through&nbsp;a recent donation of silent films. The gift came from&nbsp;a family who had come into possession of the films&nbsp;when an&nbsp;Eaton's store&nbsp;in Winnipeg stopped offering silent film rentals in the 1940s.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-lost-film-secrets-1.4057564?cmp=rss">Read more at CBC</a></h3> <p>Since then, the 64-minute film, which is the only known version of the movie&nbsp;in a public collection,&nbsp;has been restored and digital copies&nbsp;have&nbsp;been made. It was screened last week&nbsp;at 91łÔąĎ, before&nbsp;an audience of about 100, and&nbsp;accompanied by live pianist,&nbsp;Jordan Klapman, who is an expert on movie music from the silent era. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“It is extremely rare,” said&nbsp;<strong>Brock Silversides</strong>, director&nbsp;of&nbsp;Media Commons. “A huge chunk of silent films from the silent film era have been lost to history. At the beginning of the sound era, people got rid of them in large numbers. Studios didn't see the value in keeping them&nbsp;so the fact that we received&nbsp;a batch of silent films is huge in and of itself.”</p> <h3><a href="http://www.metronews.ca/entertainment/2017/04/05/box-of-old-movies-recovered-from-eaton-s-store-in-1940s-contains-lost-film.html">Read the story at Metro News</a></h3> <p>There is a 16 mm&nbsp;print of the film&nbsp;in a private collection, which is available digitally, but it does not&nbsp;contain the original opening credits and is missing three scenes from the ending, Stewart said.&nbsp;&nbsp;At the time, many studios like Universal lost a lot of the silent&nbsp;catalogue in vault fires.</p> <p>“So to come by a Universal title makes this unique,” Silversides&nbsp;said. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="http://www.citynews.ca/2017/04/05/box-of-old-movies-recovered-from-eatons-store-in-1940s-contains-lost-film/">Read the City News story</a></h3> <p>BlachĂ© was a well known director at the time. His then-wife Alice Guy-BlachĂ©, who also worked on the film, was one of the pioneering film directors at the time. Like most black-and-white films, it is actually tinted&nbsp;– amber colour for daytime and indoor scenes, and blue for night scenes.</p> <p>The film and 14 others were&nbsp;donated by Richard and Wayne Scott. Most&nbsp;of the films&nbsp;were produced by Universal Studios.</p> <p>Richard Scott was part of the screening last week, participating&nbsp;in a Q &amp; A, following the movie.</p> <p>“Back in the 1940s, my father worked for Eaton's in Winnipeg,” Richard Scott said.&nbsp;“Eaton's offered every&nbsp;product you can imagine, including&nbsp;a film library for people who wanted to rent out films. Eaton's&nbsp;decided to do away with the service and offered the films to employees to&nbsp;purchase,&nbsp;and that's what my father did.&nbsp;The&nbsp;16 mm&nbsp;copies of what are now very rare films gave rise to the interest in the&nbsp;collection.</p> <p>“It's been in the&nbsp;family for 70-odd years.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4059 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/silent-film-2.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 422px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>A scene from Secrets of the Night (image courtesy of Robarts' Media Commons Library)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 03 Apr 2017 15:12:28 +0000 ullahnor 106290 at