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.

Felix Vasquez Jr. runs Cinema Crazed. Their raison d’ etre is covering the best and worst in independent and cult cinema. Sometimes “best” and “worst” overlap in cult cinema so we think Vasquez may be trying to confuse and confound us.

Another great thing about Cinema Crazed is that they cover undiscovered filmmakers making waves on the underground. Places like this site are where you want to go when you want to see what is next in film.

Check out Cinema Crazed HERE.

Movie Habit has movie and DVD reviews (as the headline indicates) but they also cover festivals, do interviews, have reviews of Colorado based theaters and calendar information for the Denver/Boulder area.

 Movie Habit has six writers, all covering different stuff.

 * Andrea Birgers writes animation, Disney DVDs, and literary adaptations

* John Adams writes about animation, art, and history

* Matt Anderson writes about mainstream movies and is our second-longest-running contributor

* Marty Mapes covers revivals, art films, and other dark corners of the film world

* Robert Denerstein, formerly film critic for the Rocky Mountain News for 27 years; he writes about new movies

* Brad Weismann writes about movie theaters in Colorado

 Mapes says the ultimate purpose of the site is to provide value. How you say? Well, Movie Habit can save you $10 on a crappy movie. Pretty valuable.

“It warns you of false promises and guides you to hidden treasure. Life is too short for bad movies. For those who read reveiws after seeing a film, criticism helps you digest what you saw. It reveals undercurrents and metaphors that renew your appreciation of a great film. It helps you put your finger on exactly why bad films fall short. Movie Habit is written by those who have a serious movie habit, for those who would like to develop good movie habits.” wrote Mapes.

For more head to www.moviehabit.com.

Chris Ball is a movie critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He writes an interesting DVD column and while he reviews a lot of "big" movies he also sneaks in oddball films here and there.

Check out his blog HERE.

You can also chase down his movie revies at www.cleveland.com/movies.