Winner of the 2004 Film Heritage Award
from the National Society of Film Critics

The critically acclaimed More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931 showcases the astonishing creative range and vitality of American motion pictures in their first four decades through examples preserved by the nation's leading silent-film archives. The 3-DVD box set, with 200-page book, covers the years from 1894 through 1931, when the motion pictures grew from a peepshow curio to the nation's fourth largest industry. This is the period from which fewest American films survive.

The programs presents 50 films and 6 previews never before available on good-quality video, from the earliest surviving sound film, produced in 1894 by Thomas Edison's laboratory, to A Bronx Morning (1931), an avant-garde documentary by Jay Leyda. Among the rare works are Clash of the Wolves starring the original Rin-Tin-Tin, the first surviving film of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Ernst Lubitsch's Lady Windermere's Fan, kinetoscopes of Annie Oakley and Thomas Edison, a sing-along with Ko-Ko the Clown, educational shorts on making light bulbs and telephone etiquette, the earliest film of a Martha Graham dance, a cartoon satire on prohibition by Gregory La Cava, and footage of the rural South by novelist Zora Neale Hurston. All films are mastered from the best surviving source material. For an illustrated brochure (PDF file) listing the contents and contributors, click here.

The second in the NFPF’s Treasures series, More Treasures was produced in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. In 2005, the two Treasures sets were honored by Bologna, Italy’s international film festival, Il Cinema Ritrovato, as the "best DVD series." Net proceeds from both sets will support further film preservation.

The 9-1/2 hour anthology is curated by Scott Simmon and designed by Jennifer Grey. The music is curated by Martin Marks. Fifteen of the new music scores feature instrumental ensembles. Among the contributing composers are Peter Child, Mark Harvey, Brian Robison, Charles Shadle, and Fred Steiner.

More Treasures celebrates the preservation work of American archives and offers a reminder that these institutions hold many more rare films that will be seen only with public support.