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Exhibition Reel of Two Color Film (ca. 1929)

An experimental color short in Brewster Color, preserved by George Eastman House and presented on the More Treasures DVD set.

PORDENONE FESTIVAL SALUTES "SAVING THE SILENTS"
Celebrates Films Preserved through the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Film Preservation Foundation

Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7291, lambert@filmpreservation.org)

San Francisco, CA (October 2, 2001)—The internationally renowned Pordenone Silent Film Festival will present a tribute to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Film Preservation Foundation during its 20th annual festival, October 13 to 20, in Sacile, Italy. Saving the Silents, Pordenone's three-program salute, celebrates the NEA and NFPF's behind-the-scenes role in supporting silent film preservation at America's preeminent archives.

The tribute takes its name from the collaborative project announced by the NEA and NFPF two years ago to save endangered works by America's first filmmakers. This project sets aside $1 million in federal funds to preserve 67 rare silent-era works at the George Eastman House, the Museum of Modern Art, and the UCLA Film and Television Archive and to update the International Federation of Film Archives' authoritative database of silent film holdings, under the direction of the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California at Berkeley. The effort received the largest single U.S. government film preservation grant ever awarded.

Some of the first prints produced through this collaboration will be screened at the Pordenone festival. Saving the Silents includes a new tinted print of Molly O' starring Mabel Normand; shorts from the Edison Studios, with new intertitles recreated from the cutting continuity; and The Penalty, with Lon Chaney, preserved from the original camera negative. The programs will be shown over three days beginning on Wednesday, October 17. Film notes and scheduling information are available on the festival web site.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving America's film heritage. Created by the U.S. Congress in 1996, the NFPF is the charitable affiliate of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. For more information on the NFPF preservation programs, please visit the NFPF web site: www.filmpreservation.org.

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