THE RED MARK at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
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| The fastest way out of the penal colony of Nouméa, as seen in The Red Mark (1928), preserved by and screening at the San Francisco Silent Festival. |
On Sunday, April 14th the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will the premiere the new restoration of The Red Mark (1928), a prison-set potboiler preserved with NFPF support.
Directed by James Cruze, best known for epics The Covered Wagon (1923) and Old Ironsides (1926), the film is a set on the South Seas prison island of Nouméa. Its governor is De Nou (Gustav von Seyffertitz), who loves nothing more than sending a inmate to the guillotine. Pickpocket Bibi Ri (Gaston Glass) has won his freedom and refuses to leave the island without his girl (Nina Quartero), but she has caught the creepy, jealous eye of De Nou...
"A powerful story, though not a pretty one," was the judgment of Motion Picture … Read more
Catch MAN AND WIFE at the UCLA Festival of Preservation
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| Norma Shearer goes mad in Man and Wife (1923), preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive. |
Early April brings the return of the biennial UCLA Festival of Preservation, showcasing UCLA Film & Television Archive's latest preservation and restoration projects on the big screen. All screenings are free, and on April 7 attendees will have the opportunity to see the short feature Man and Wife (1923), preserved through a Roger Mayer Legacy Grant administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Directed by John L. McCutcheon and starring Norma Shearer and Maurice Costello, Man and Wife was an independent production filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey, known in the silent era as “Hollywood on the Hudson.” The film’s exuberantly melodramatic plot, involving secret identities, a character returning from the dead, insanity, and bigamy, caused … Read more
12 Movies Join the NFPF's Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films
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| Promote any product you want with The Your Name Here Story (ca. 1962), sponsored by [your name here]. |
Today the NFPF adds 12 movies to its Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films, a free digital screening room that presents entries from The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, written by Rick Prelinger and published by the NFPF in 2006.
The screening room hosts a total of 171 sponsored films, commissioned during the 20th century by a host of American organizations: businesses promoting commercial products, charities highlighting their good works, advocacy groups bringing attention to social causes, and state and local governments explaining their programs. Though several of the films circulate online in low-resolution copies made from analog transfers, the new videos on our site are derived from HD scans created by the Library of Congress.
Avant-Garde Masters Grants Set to Preserve Five Films
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| Caligari's Cure (1982) by Tom Palazzolo |
A semi-autobiographical feature by Tom Palazzolo, two queer cinema classics by Michael Wallin, a subjective investigation of persona by Natalka Voslakov, and an abstract portrait of life by Ricardo Bloch and Sally Dixon will be preserved and made available through the 2023 Avant-Garde Masters Grants, awarded by The Film Foundation and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Funding is provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Chicago-based artist Tom Palazzolo's absurdist feature film, Caligari's Cure (1982), is both an irreverent retelling of Palazzolo's childhood and a loose adaptation of Robert Weine's 1919 classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman wrote, "The brazen, comic-book mise-en-scène resembles that of Red … Read more
Reminder: Catch THE UNKNOWN on the big screen, September 30th!
Mark your calendar: on Saturday, September 30th, the National Film Preservation Foundation and Silent Movie Day will join forces to present a special screening of Tod Browning’s macabre masterpiece The Unknown. Featuring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, the film screens the day after Silent Movie Day at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas throughout the USA. Proceeds will support the NFPF’s preservation efforts.
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| Lon Chaney in The Unknown (1927), screening at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on Sept. 30th. |
The September 30th screenings take place at the following Alamo Drafthouse locations; tickets are available through the links:
Alamo South Lamar (Austin)
Alamo Wrigleyville (Chicago)
Alamo Sloans Lake (Denver)
Alamo DTLA
Alamo 28 Liberty (Manhattan)
Alamo Yonkers
Alamo Raleigh
Alamo Stone Oak (San Antonio)
Alamo New Mission (San Francisco) … Read more