When you think of silent film what do you think of? Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton? Harold Lloyd? Many people think of Slapstick Comedy. Personally, and I know this may be blasphemouse to some, I can only take so much slapstick. Some I like but there is so much more that was made during the silent era. The problem is that 90% of the silent films made have disappeared. Thankfully there are Archives like the George Eastman House, Library Of Congress, and UCLA Archives that are preserving many of the films. And there are Film Festivals and small theaters dedicated to showing silent films. A few companies like KINO and Grapevine Video put out silent films. But unless you live near one of the archives or can travel to one of the festivals chances are you will never be able to see many of the silent films that still exist. There are also private collectors, like myself, who have some rare films. It is my hope that other collectors will begin making their collections available. If you would like info on the process I use please click on my transfer process page above.
In no way can my collections be considedered "restored". They are transferred warts and all. I applaud Kino and others who labor diligently to restore a film. I don't have the resources or the time to restore a film, but I believe by making my collection available for others to see that a greater understanding and enjoyment of silent era can be had. |
I have been collecting silent films for many years. My collection includes VHS, DVD, 8mm, Super 8, 9.5mm, 16mm and even a few 35mm Nitrate films. A few years ago I decided to begin transferring my film collection to DVD. The first films I transferred were my Texas Guinan Westerns. I sold them indivually on Ebay and several years later I was contacted by a film collector who had a nitrate copy of A Moonshine Feud. I bought it and saved up enough money to have it transfered. It is extremely expensive to transfer nitrate film! See my nitrate page for more info. I have since combined the Texas Guinan films together and sell them as a 2 DVD collection. In the last few years it has become more economical to have films transfered and I have already transferred a good portion of my collection, added music to them and put them into collections of 2 to 5 films on each DVD. Some of the features are long enough that they are on their own DVD. They are available on Ebay or from this website. Each of the films is in the Public Domain, and the soundtrack I have added is from Royalty Free sources. Most of the films in my collection are not available from other sources. Some of them are to be found only in an Archive, some not even there. Once in a while one of the films may be found somewhere else but for the most part not.
|