Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #612

Long-lost Silent Film About Lincoln Found After 100+ yrs
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUin5lDI9RE
By Ben Hooper
Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A 1915 silent film about Abraham Lincoln was thought to be lost forever before being found in a warehouse on New York's Long Island.
Dan Martin, a summer intern at Historic Films Archive in Greenport, was sorting through boxes of dona- tions at the archive's ware- house last sum- mer when he found the only known surviving copy of The Heart of Lincoln, a silent film about the life of President Abraham Lincoln.
"For someone going to school for film preservation, this is about the most rewarding
outcome you can have sifting through those old film cans,"
Martin told NBC New York.
The Heart of Lincoln had been listed by the Library of Congress as among the some- 7,000 silent films believed to be completely lost to time.
The film was directed by Francis Ford, who also starred in the movie. Ford's younger brother, John Ford, went on to win four Academy Awards for Best Director. John Ford direct- ed the 1939
film Young Mr. Lincoln, which starred Henry Fonda as Abraham Lincoln.
Joe Lauro, owner of the Historic
Films Archive, said the movie's rediscovery came as a shock.
"With silent films, probably 70% of them are gone," Lauro said. "It's a piece of the puz- zle that's now been found. The puzzle of lost American cine- ma."
The Heart of Lincoln has now been cleaned and digitized by film archivist Eliot Kissileff.
"I guess it was just lucky the cans were sealed and had not decayed," Kissilef said.
Lauro said his next planned step is to have a score added to the restored film so it can be screened to new audiences.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine