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2025 Avant-Garde Masters Grants to Preserve Seventeen Films 25 Sep 1:49 PM (27 days ago)

Better Be Careful (1986) by Heather McAdams

The National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation are pleased to announce the 2025 Avant-Garde Masters Grants. Works by Heather McAdams, Kathleen Laughlin, and Michael Mideke will be preserved and made accessible with generous funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. 

The Chicago Film Society will continue its efforts to preserve the work of Chicago-based alternative cartoonist and filmmaker Heather McAdams, with eight titles slated for restoration. Known for her playful use of found footage and recontextualized sound, this selection represents a vibrant cross-section of McAdams’s body of work—highlighting her humor, inventive use of media, and distinctive filmmaking techniques. From early Super 8 student films like The Dream (1978) and Dr. Loomis (1978) to Jay Elvis (1991), an eccentric portrait of an Elvis impersonator, the collection traces the evolution of her style. Films such as The Space Cadets (1979), Joe Was Not So Happy (1990), and Mr. Glenn W. Turner (1990) feature hallmark elements of her practice, including appropriated soundtracks and collage-like visuals. Better Be Careful (1986) showcases her signature use of scratch animation, while My Postcard Collection (1999) stands out for its advanced animation techniques. 

Susan Through Corn (1974) by Kathleen Laughlin

The Walker Art Center will preserve Kathleen Laughlin’s Susan Through Corn (1974), a lyrical short that follows the filmmaker’s sister, Susan, through the cornfields of St. Paul, Minnesota, in what Amos Vogel described as “an original vision, of summer, youth, a moment.” With a background in visual arts and animation, Laughlin was an integral part of the Twin Cities’ independent filmmaking community, contributing as both a teacher and graphic designer at Film in the Cities, the region’s landmark media arts center. In 2024, the Walker Art Center received an Avant-Garde Masters grant to preserve Laughlin’s earlier film Opening/Closing (1972). 

Phi Textures (1975) by Michael Mideke


Eight films by Michael Mideke will be preserved by Anthology Film Archives, marking an overdue rediscovery of a filmmaker once described as “one of the truly unknown geniuses of black-and-white filmmaking.” Though highly regarded by his contemporaries, Mideke’s work disappeared from distribution after he shifted focus away from filmmaking. His films reveal a deep fascination with the texture and physicality of celluloid, as seen in Scratch Dance (1972), a hypnotic composition of hand-scratched black leader layered through fades and superimpositions, and Phi Textures (1975), an exploration of film grain and the "Phi Phenomenon"—the illusion of motion from static images. Mideke frequently incorporated organic materials like plants and leaves, printing them directly onto film in works such as Shadow Game (1964), Twig (1966), and Flight of Shadows (1973), each of which emphasizes the tactile and ephemeral qualities of nature and film alike. Anthology Film Archives is excited to preserve and reintroduce Mideke’s visionary body of work to contemporary audiences. 

Now in its twenty-third year, the Avant-Garde Masters program, created by The Film Foundation and the NFPF, has helped 34 organizations save 251 films significant to the development of the avant-garde in America. Funding for the program is generously provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The grants have preserved works by 92 artists, including Kenneth Anger, Shirley Clarke, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Oskar Fischinger, Hollis Frampton, Barbara Hammer, Marjorie Keller, George and Mike Kuchar, and Stan VanDerBeek. Click here to learn more about all the films preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters Grants

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Five Silent Films Premiere on the NFPF Website: Starring Clara Bow, Richard Barthelmess, Corinne Griffith, and Hank Mann 24 Sep 12:31 PM (28 days ago)

Joan Crawford (1952)
Clara Bow is unlucky at cards but lucky in love in Poisoned Paradise (1924).

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 titles include three features—Poisoned Paradise (1924), a melodrama starring Clara Bow; The Fighting Blade (1923), a costume drama starring and produced by Richard Barthlemess; A Virgin’s Sacrifice (1922), a frozen north saga starring Corinne Griffith—and two shorts: the Hank Mann comedy Way Out West (1920) and Oakland Newsreels (1914–21), a compilation of rare surviving footage from Bay Area newsfilms.

Poisoned Paradise: The Forbidden Story of Monte Carlo marks Clara Bow’s first leading role in Hollywood. Made for B.P. Schulberg’s low-budget independent studio Preferred Pictures, the film proved Bow could easily carry a feature with her vivid, emotional performance. She plays a young woman cleaned out at Monte Carlo’s card tables, who becomes housekeeper to an artist with a formula for beating the odds. Among the villains pursuing her is Martel “the Rat,” played by the great silent comedian Raymond Griffith (Hands Up!, 1926). Handling cinematography is another major talent on the way to the top, Karl Struss (Sunrise, 1927). Poisoned Paradise was preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Stanford Theatre Foundation, with funding through Saving the Silents, a collaborative project organized by the NFPF and supported by the Save America’s Treasures program. Ben Model provides the score, along with that of Way Out West.

Richard Barthelmess (1923)
Richard Barthelmess seeks vengeance in The Fighting Blade (1923).

Also preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive is The Fighting Blade. Set in the 1640s, during the English Civil War (though actually filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a former rival to Hollywood), the film stars Richard Barthelmess as a Dutch soldier of fortune in England on a mission of vengeance. He finds himself dueling with the Royalist guardians of a cross-dressing heiress (played by Dorothy Mackaill) and enlisted by Oliver Cromwell to infiltrate a castle of Cavaliers. The Fighting Blade was produced by Inspiration Pictures, the production company Barthelmess co-founded to produce Tol’able David (1921); it was one of 18 features he starred in and produced. Handling direction is John S. Robertson, whose credits range from the John Barrymore Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) to the religious drama Captain Salvation (1927). The new score is by Michael Mortilla, who also scored A Virgin’s Sacrifice and Oakland Newsreels.

A Virgin’s Sacrifice features “the orchid lady of the screen” Corinne Griffith, who Gloria Swanson considered the only truly beautiful star in Hollywood. Griffith was also a skilled businesswoman, who would later form a production company of her own and make an even bigger fortune (along with several bizarre headlines) after leaving Hollywood. Made in 1922 by the Vitagraph Company, itself founded in 1897, A Virgin’s Sacrifice exemplifies the sort of vehicle that brought Griffith to stardom. Directed by her husband Webster Campbell and set in the Arctic Circle, the film has Griffith playing a rifle-toting woman who convinces a government researcher to pose as her husband, to protect her from a villainous poacher claiming to be the father of her child. “Beautiful snow scenes, plenty of good action, attractive star. What more could you want?” asked one reviewer. A Virgin’s Sacrifice was preserved by George Eastman Museum, with funding from Saving the Silents.

Corinne Griffith (1922)
Corinne Griffith prepares to make A Virgin's Sacrifice (1922).

Way Out West (1920) stars Keystone-alumnus Hank Mann, “the comedian’s comedian of the silent era,” instantly recognizable by his brush mustache and bowl haircut. The film was part of a series of Mann comedies made for the Arrow Film Co., which would eventually become Monogram Pictures. Vernon Dent plays “A Rip-Roaring Bad Man” who must be apprehended by “Tenderfoot” Mann. The director is Charles Parrott, who four years later would reinvent himself as the great comic star Charley Chase. Way Out West was preserved by the Library of Congress through an NFPF preservation grant. The film note is by film historian and silent slapstick expert Steve Massa.

Oakland Newsreels compiles six stories, from approximately 1914 to 1921, produced by three newsreel companies that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area. From the News Weekly, produced by the Oakland Tribune newspaper, comes “A minute with Jack Dempsey” showing the world heavyweight boxing champion in a home purchased by his manager, Jack “Doc” Kearns. Another story, about a fire escape at the California Institute for Deaf and Blind that could eject 150 students a minute, is a rare surviving item from the Golden Gate Weekly, a newsreel produced by The California Motion Picture Corporation. Based in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, the independent studio produced the early feature Salomy Jane (1914), but most of its output was lost in a vault fire.

Put all those films together and you have nearly five hours of moving images to help you enjoy your Silent Movie Day. Be on the lookout for more films in the months ahead!

Hank Mann (1920)
Hank Mann finds himself out of funds Way Out West (1920)

Founded in 2021 and registered with National Day Archives, Silent Movie Day is an annual celebration of silent movies that anyone can take part in. Advocating for the presentation and preservation of silent film, Silent Movie Day has grown into an international movement. Consult its website to learn more about silent film screenings near you.

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81 Films to be Preserved by the 2025 NFPF Preservation Grants 25 Jul 6:03 PM (2 months ago)

Joan Crawford (1952)
Eight public service and promotional films featuring Hollywood stars will be preserved by the George Eastman Museum with NFPF support. In this untitled teaser from 1952 Joan Crawford fundraises for a Texas clinic that cared for children with polio.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of its 2025 federally funded grants, which will allow 31 institutions across 14 states and the District of Columbia to preserve 81 films.

The richly varied selection ranges from Joan Crawford to Jordan Belson, Herbert Hoover to forensic science founder Dr. Rutherford Birchard Hayes Gradwohl, and it stretches from Polish Highlanders in Chicago to the Iñupiat in Alaska. The grant-winners encompass almost every genre of “orphan film.” These highlights give a taste of the selection—to see the full list of 2025 grant recipients, go here.

Documentaries are well represented this year. The National Gallery of Art will preserve three that chronicle noted artists: Femme/Woman: A Tapestry by Joan Miró (1979), documents the design and execution of a large-scale tapestry created by the Catalan-Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramist. Mobile, by Alexander Calder (1980) details the creation and installation of the American sculptor’s final major piece, while David Smith, American Sculptor, 1906-1965 (1983) shows the abstract expressionist at work.

Among the community portraits are Eskimo Harvest (ca.1937), an intimate and respectful visual record of Indigenous lifeways in Inupiat community of Wales (Kingigin), on Alaska’s western coast, to be preserved by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Highlanders Wedding (1961), a reenactment of a traditional Polish Highlanders wedding in Chicago, featuring authentic costumes, dances, and songs. The Polish Highlanders Alliance Foundation will oversee the preservation.

Incisive social commentary is provided by another set of documentaries. Don’t Bank on Amerika (1970), created by author Peter Biskind during his teaching stint at the University of California Santa Barbara, chronicles campus unrest and the burning of a nearby branch of the Bank of America. The University of Pennsylvania will preserve The Tombs (1973), an unflinching look at the conditions in New York City’s notorious prison, directed by Phil Parmet (cinematographer for features ranging from Harlan County, USA to Devil’s Rejects). After parts of the film were broadcast on 60 Minutes the prison was permanently closed after a judge declared its conditions unconstitutional. From Spikes to Spindles (1976), directed by Christine Choy (Who Killed Vincent Chin?, 1987) covers the political awakening and history of Chinese Americans, from 19th century railroad workers to 20th century garment workers in New York’s Chinatown.

Snow White (1945)
An amateur production of Snow White (1945), just one part of the Mildred Keister Dennis Collection (ca.1940–55), which the Knox County Library will preserve through an NFPF grant.

The avant-garde selection includes several influential artists. Nine films by Jordan Belson, renowned for the psychedelic abstractions in his “visual music,” will be preserved by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, including classics such as Cosmos (1969) and the yoga-inspired Samadhi (1967), described by Belson as a “documentary of the human soul.”

Also to be saved in the experimental field are nine films by Owen Land (also known as George Landow), four animated films by Kentucky filmmaker Ed Counts, five early 3-D computer animated films created by A. Michael Noll, and the feature-length Making is Choosing: A Fragment of Life: A Broken Line: A Series of Observations (1989), an "autobiographical fiction" by Willie Varela. In the related genre of the essay film, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will preserve Two Women (1977), a deeply personal exploration of Black womanhood across generations created by Carol Parrott Blue, a multifaceted artist noted for her contributions to the L.A. Rebellion.

In the category of home movies are a group of vivid, eclectic collections. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library will preserve 43 Kodacolor films, shot between 1928 and 1935, showing the President and his family in and out of the White House. Seven films from this collection were preserved through an earlier NFPF grant; this year’s will ensure the survival of the entire collection. Another large body of amateur filmmaking, the Mildred Keister Dennis Collection (ca.1940-55), will be preserved by the Knox County Public Library. Not only a member of Knoxville high society but also a member of the city’s Better Films Committee, Denis extensively filmed her life and that of her daughter Carloyn, and even cast her in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a 45-minute homemade homage to the Disney feature.

Two home movie collections cover the glory years of aviation. The Pan Am Historical Foundation will preserve footage shot by former US Navy Pilot Walter A. Brooke, which covers the opening of the first intercontinental route in American commercial aviation, an airmail route to Surinam piloted by Charles A. Lindbergh. The Texas Archive of the Moving Image will save the home movies of RV Carleton. Named one of the top ten pilots in the country by Aviation magazine, Carleton was tasked by Braniff International with surveying and preparing the airline’s new routes to central and south America in the late 1940s. He documented his efforts on film, including his dangerous jet-assisted take-offs from La Paz, the world’s highest airport.

Highlanders Wedding (1961)
Highlanders Wedding (1961), to be preserved by the Polish Highlanders Alliance Foundation with NFPF support.

Several research films are also slated for preservation. Washington University in St. Louis will preserve six reels made by Dr. Rutherford Birchard Hayes Gradwohl, founder of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and author of the definitive textbook on forensic science, still in use today. The reels focus on professional life at the Gradwohl School of Laboratory Technique and provide instruction in tasks such as CO2 testing of blood plasma. The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, will save a set of experimental three-color separation films created on 66mm during the 1920s by Danish American inventor August Plahn, who’d created a viable but obscure rival to Technicolor.

Stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age provide glamor among the grant winners. The San Francisco Film Preserve will preserve Weak But Willing (1929), a sound comedy short starring Vaudeville dialect comedian Will King that also features a young Jean Harlow as a flirtatious nightclub habitué. George Eastman Museum will save a set of eight public service and promotional shorts representing an overlooked area of film history. Know for Sure (1941), part of the Surgeon General’s campaign to combat syphilis, was directed by Lewis Milestone and produced by 20th Century-Fox and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with a cast including Ward Bond, Tim Holt, and Etta McDaniel. The preservation will restore graphic imagery censored for mixed and female-only audiences. Also in the set: Ginger Rogers Finds a Bargain, produced in 1944 as part of the 4th War Loan Drive; A Message from Mr. Gregory Peck (1948), produced by David O. Selznick to advocate for the Red Cross, and Joan Crawford in an untitled 1952 effort by the Motion Picture Theatres of Texas to fundraise for the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation, which provided care for children with polio.

Two Women (1977)
Two Women (1977), LA Rebellion filmmaker Carrol Parrott Blue’s first film, will be preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, through an NFPF grant.

The NFPF preservation grants are made possible by funds authorized through The Library of Congress, have provided preservation support to cultural institutions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to save more than 2,937 films. Films saved through the NFPF programs are used in education and seen widely through screenings, exhibits, and streaming. A curated selection of the preserved films is available for viewing on the NFPF website, and more than 320 additional titles have been made accessible by our grant recipients.

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THE BARGAIN in the NFPF Screening Room 13 Jun 8:58 PM (4 months ago)

The Bargain (1914)
William S. Hart in The Bargain (1914)

The NFPF has the pleasure of announcing that The Bargain (1914) is now available for free viewing in our online screening room. This epochal western, produced by Thomas Ince, directed by Reginald Barker, and added to the National Film Registry in 2010, marked the feature film debut of William S. Hart, one of the genre's greatest stars. It kicked off Hart’s decade-long mission of giving the Western a greater semblance of realism and intense morality. Hart plays his favorite character type, the “good badman,” the outlaw who finds redemption in uneasy reach.

Though The Bargain is available elsewhere online, our copy is in High Definition and graced with a score by Ben Model! Our thanks to the Library of Congress for providing a scan of the 35mm paper print, originally deposited at the Library for copyright purposes in 1914, and for allowing us to reproduce the National Film Registry essay by Brian Taves.

We can also report that several films in the Treasures from American Film Archives section of our screening room have received HD upgrades. They are: 

George Dumpson's Place (1965), Ed Emshwiller’s captivating portrait of the scavenger artist.

The Thieving Hand (1908), a surreal special-effects comedy from Vitagraph.

The Confederate Ironclad (1912), a Civil War adventure from Kalem, pitting a "Northern girl spy" against a "southern sweetheart."

Snow White (1916)
Snow White (1916).

Snow White (1916), the live-action feature of the Brothers Grimm tale, starring Marguerite Clark, that inspired Walt Disney.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), the avant-garde adaptation of Poe’s short story by James Sibley Watson, Jr., and Melville Webber.

More additions and upgrades will arrive in the coming months, so stay tuned!

 

 

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7 More Movies Join the Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films 16 Jan 12:02 PM (9 months ago)

We’re happy to announce seven recent additions to the Online Field Guide to Sponsored Films, the free screening room featuring movies from The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, written by Rick Prelinger and published by the NFPF in 2006. All seven additions are derived from HD scans created by the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress.

A wedding is one of the many joys of everyday existence celebrated on three screens in To Be Alive! (1964).

These films in were produced for a richly varied set of reasons. Some titles were commissioned by charities highlighting their good works, as with On the Firing Line (1936). Sponsored by the National Tuberculosis Association, this public health travelogue highlights cross-country locations that have played a part in the struggle against tuberculosis and discusses modern treatment methods.

Other sponsored films were bankrolled by commercial organizations seeking to influence the behavior of employees or the greater public. The Open Door: The Story of Foreman Jim Baxter, His Family, and His Job (1945), produced by Jam Handy for the Public Relations Staff of General Motors, is a management training film commissioned to dissuade GM’s factory foremen from unionization; it shows a machinist trying to decide whether to cast his lot with management or workers. The David Hall Story (1963), was sponsored by an insurance company, Employers Mutual of Wausau, and intended to be cautionary tale for teenage drivers. It documents and reconstructs the 1955 automobile accident that crippled David Hall, named “Handicapped American of the Year” by President Kennedy in 1963. Hall appears onscreen and narrates his story of his treatment and rehabilitation.

The cutting-edge of computer graphics, as demonstrated in Incredible Machine (1968).

Sponsored films were also made to influence public opinion. This Is Your Police Department (1951) was made by Jam Handy as a public relations exercise for the Field Day Committee of the Detroit Police Dept. The first half shows the police demonstrating their skills at the annual Detroit Police Field Day, while the second shows cadet training and officers on the beat. Frontiers of the Future: A Screen Editorial with Lowell Thomas (1937) was sponsored by the National Industrial Council, comprised of representatives of state manufacturers associations, and enlists the famous broadcaster to improve the public image of industry during the Great Depression, by having him predict economic revitalization through future industrial research.

And of course, sponsored films promoted corporations. Incredible Machine (1968), funded by AT&T, promotes cutting-edge communications technology developed at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, including computer graphics, computer-synthesized speech, and computer-generated movies and music. To Be Alive! (1964), sponsored by the home cleaning products manufacturer S.C. Johnson & Son, was produced by Francis Thompson Productions and screened at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. Directors Francis Thompson and Alexander Hammid shot the film, which eschews product placement and  celebrates the wonders of everyday life, simultaneously with three cameras. The triptych image was then shown on three adjacent 18-foot screens, where it was seen by more than 5 million fairgoers. To Be Alive! won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1965. Our online presentation unites scans of three prints to present the film in its original triptych format.

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