Silent film enthusiasts (like me) should be very pleased over the release of Accidentally Preserved: Rare & Lost Silent Films from Vintage 16mm Prints, a somewhat cumbersome title for this DVD collection of nine silent film shorts. The set comes out June 11 and will be available only at Amazon.com via their “CreateSpace” DVD on demand service.
Some of these have been lost for decades and guess why they are back? Crowdfunding. The crowdfunding project was put together by silent film musical accompanist, Ben Model. Model coined the phrase “accidentally preserved” to refer films that exist because they were copied onto 16mm safety film for home rental (yes, they had home rental). Model is, as mentioned, a silent film accompanist and has worked as such at the Museum of Modern Art since 1984.
The films include pieces by Wallace Lupino, Billy Franey, Clyde Cook, Cliff Bowes and Paul Parrott (Charley Chase’s sibling). There is also a Max Fleischer cartoon and an industrial film (very few of these from the era survived—even less than entertainment films)
Find out more at www.accidentallypreserved.com. There will be more releases in the series. Probably in part, because of this “on demand” service by Amazon. It is tough to get distribution of such films and costly to duplicate in numbers.
For more on Model head to www.silentfilmmusic.com.
Some of these have been lost for decades and guess why they are back? Crowdfunding. The crowdfunding project was put together by silent film musical accompanist, Ben Model. Model coined the phrase “accidentally preserved” to refer films that exist because they were copied onto 16mm safety film for home rental (yes, they had home rental). Model is, as mentioned, a silent film accompanist and has worked as such at the Museum of Modern Art since 1984.
The films include pieces by Wallace Lupino, Billy Franey, Clyde Cook, Cliff Bowes and Paul Parrott (Charley Chase’s sibling). There is also a Max Fleischer cartoon and an industrial film (very few of these from the era survived—even less than entertainment films)
Find out more at www.accidentallypreserved.com. There will be more releases in the series. Probably in part, because of this “on demand” service by Amazon. It is tough to get distribution of such films and costly to duplicate in numbers.
For more on Model head to www.silentfilmmusic.com.
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