NFPF News

Five Silent Films Premiere on the NFPF Website: Starring William Powell, Clara Bow, Wallace Reid, Charles Ray, and Marin Sais

Frank Keenan, Clara Bow, and William Powell share a tense moment on the phone in My Lady's Lips (1925).

To celebrate Silent Movie Day the National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to present five new silent films in our online screening room. All were preserved with NFPF support and all but one are appearing online—and on video—for the very first time. The HD videos are presented with notes and new scores by Michael Mortilla and Ben Model, two of the finest silent film accompanists working today.

The films include three features—My Lady’s Lips (1925), starring William Powell as an ace reporter tasked with protecting the reputation of his editor’s daughter, Clara Bow, from a gang of crooks; Paris Green (1920), starring Charles Ray as a war hero returning with mixed … Read more

NFPF Films at Re:Vision — Festival of Restoration and Rediscovery

Jean Harlow is a flirtatious nightclub-goer in Weak But Willing (1929).

The San Francisco Film Preserve has launched a new festival, Re:Vision — Festival of Restoration and Rediscovery. It unfolds from September 24 to 27 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Celebrating the achievements of archives and archivists across the world, Re:Vision will present an impressive array of films from 18 countries and almost as many genres and eras.

The NFPF will co-present three screenings at Re:Vision—each featuring a short NFPF film preceding a main feature. Witch (1973) screens on Friday, Sept. 25 (prior to The Outcasts). It was created by Karen Loveland, one of the most prolific, and unheralded, American women filmmakers of the 20th century. She served as a staff filmmaker at the Smithsonian Institution for over 55 years. Witch is a looping film, … Read more

Now Streaming: “America at 250”

Skip James performs in Festival in Washington (1968)

The newest addition to the National Film Preservation Foundation's Online Screening Room is “America at 250,” a program that celebrates our country’s 250th anniversary by showcasing 12 films that trace the American spirit—and its contradictions—across more than a century of cinema. Drawn from archives across the country, these films—whether amateur or animated, documentary or travelogue, spoof or newsreel—demonstrate how moving pictures have served to inform, honor, document, and shape our nation.

Three of the films are new to our website, and all preserved through NFPF grants. Tellin’ the World (1972), preserved by the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, is a public service announcement created to encourage working-class and minority youth voting after the passage of the 26th amendment, … Read more

America 250: The NFPF’s Semiquincentennial Screening

To herald the 250th anniversary of the USA, the NFPF will present a free program of eight shorts on July 18th at the Eagle Theatre in Los Angeles, home of the Vidiots Foundation. These preserved gems, from archives around the country, demonstrate the American spirit and the drive of democracy, revealing the many ways—from amateur to avant-garde—that American filmmakers have used movies to inform, honor, document, and critique.

The roster:

• Flaming Canyons (1929, preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), a startlingly scenic stencil-colored travelogue promoting the wonders of our National Parks.
• An excerpt from Marian Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial Concert (1939, UCLA Film & Television Archive).
• Obey Your Air Raid Warden (1942, Chicago Film Archives), a parodic WWII-era amateur public service announcement, laying down eight rules to observe after an air … Read more

Tom Mix in Trailin’ at the UCLA Festival of Preservation

Eva Novak watches Tom Mix take aim at the villains in Trailin' (1921).

Late May sees the return of the biennial UCLA Festival of Preservation, which allows the public to view UCLA Film & Television Archive’s recent preservation and restoration projects on the big screen of the Billy Wilder Theater. All screenings are free, and on May 31 you can see the Tom Mix western Trailin’ (1921), preserved through a National Film Preservation Foundation grant. 

Mix takes the role of a polo-playing Bostonian who heads West to learn the truth about his mother after the death of his father in a mysterious duel. Stunt-filled action ensues as foolish Westerners lock horns with our hero and live to regret it: “He looks like a tenderfoot and he talks like a tenderfoot, but he ain’t no tenderfoot!”

Using skills learned during his years as a ranch hand and … Read more