NFPF News

Now Online: Treasures From American Film Archives

William S. Hart in Hell’s Hinges (1916), one of nearly four dozen films from Treasures from American Film Archives that are now online.

Today the NFPF makes freely available for online viewing 47 films from its first DVD set, Treasures from American Film Archives. Originally released in 2000 and hailed by Roger Ebert as “a treasure trove of old, obscure, forgotten, rediscovered, and fascinating footage from the first century of film,” Treasures marked the first time that America’s archives had joined forces to share their films with home video audiences and showcase the amazing range of American films. It received an award from the National Society of Film Critics and was called the “best set of the year” by The New York Times. Treasures eventually sold out, as did an Encore edition made possible through the support of the Cecil B. De Mille Foundation. We are committed to keeping the … Read more

Celebrate Thanksgiving "For Liberty and Union"

For Liberty and Union (1977)

Now available for public viewing on the NFPF website, For Liberty and Union is an example of sponsored filmmaking in the service of history. It is a dramatization of the 1861 convention that led to West Virginia breaking away from Confederate Virginia during the Civil War and becoming a new state. The film was sponsored by the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and restoring the Wheeling Custom House, where Unionist delegates held their fateful convention. Produced by Larry Keating Productions and local filmmaker Ellis Dungan in 1977, For Liberty and Union was also filmed within the Custom House, whose restoration was nearing completion. Opened as a museum and rechristened the West Virginia Independence Hall, the building today screens the film for visitors. This online presentation is made … Read more

NFPF Screening at the Exploratorium

Butterfly (1967) by Shirley Clarke and her daughter Wendy (pictured above).

On Thursday, October 20, the Exploratorium in San Francisco presents “Seasons of Unrest: Activist Filmmaking in the Vietnam Era,” an evening of films that explore the divided and fractious state of the union during the late 1960s and onward. All six films were preserved through National Film Preservation Foundation grants by archives across the country and will be presented via sparkling new 16mm prints. Despite the passage of four decades, these works remain compellingly relevant. The roster includes:

• The Jungle (1967), a vivid portrayal of Philadelphia street life starring and made by African American gang members, named to the National Film Registry in 2009. Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive.
• Young Braves (1968), a student-produced ethnographic study and a celebration of a group of Puerto Rican teens in … Read more

Lighter Than Air, Larger Than Life: The U.S.S. Akron Onscreen

Construction of the U.S.S. Akron, captured on film by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and preserved by the University of Akron with an NFPF grant.

The deadliest airship disaster in history was not the crash of the Hindenburg but the U.S.S. Akron, which claimed the lives of 73 crew members (nearly twice the body count of the Hindenburg disaster). Unlike the famous German zeppelin, the Akron’s demise was not immortalized on film, but its birth was, thanks to the motion picture department of its builder, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

In 1928 Goodyear, in partnership with the German company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, won a U.S. Navy contract to manufacture two rigid airships, to be designed by Luftschiffbau engineers led by the renowned Dr. Karl Arnstein. The first of these dirigibles, launched on Sept. 23, 1931, was the U.S.S. Akron. 785 feet long and with gas … Read more

Recently Completed Preservation Projects: Wayne State University Historic Films

A spirited game of pushball between WSU freshmen and sophomores captured on film in 1925.

Perhaps the most satisfying moment of a film preservation project is its completion, when an archivist can rest assured that the films are finally safeguarded. Fresh from the lab, the movies are now accessible to researchers and can be screened or digitized for the general public. The most recent example is Wayne State University’s preservation of two films shot on its campus (and in Detroit) in 1925 and 1932. Preserved through a 2015 NFPF Federal Grant, the footage provides an unvarnished, non-Hollywood look at what college life was like more than 80 years ago, with freshman vs. sophomore games (bloodshed included), a “Freshman Frolic,” Christmas festivals, costumed dances (one attendee is dressed as “the Forgotten Man,” a reference to a 1932 speech by President … Read more