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LIMITED SERIES PRESENT PAST: A CELEBRATION OF FILM PRESERVATION DEC 1–19, 2022
faced by young Black women. Shot in West Oakland, her early coming-of-age feature Drylongso follows teen artist Pica on her quest to take photos of young African American men, whom she fears are becoming an increasingly “endangered species.” Note by Academy Museum Associate Director, Film Programs K.J. Relth-Miller. Daily Rains | Restoration World Premiere DIRECTED BY: Cauleen Smith. WITH: Bridget Goodman, Dorian Sylvain, Tracey Williams, Candance Renee Green. 1990. 13 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm. Restored by the Academy Film Archive. Drylongso | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere DIRECTED BY: Cauleen Smith. WRITTEN BY: Cauleen Smith, Salim Akil. WITH: Toby Smith, April Barnett, Will Power, Channel Schafer. 1998. 86 min. USA. Color. English. 4K DCP. Restored by the Criterion Collection, Janus Films, and the Academy Film Archive. Supervised by Cauleen Smith. Peggy Sat, Dec 3 | 3:30pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere When American socialite Peggy (Billie Burke) is forced to move to quiet Scotland to live with her uncle, she scandalizes the community with her rambunctious ways. Peggy’s high-spirited demeanor and unapologetic ideals truly feel ahead of their time in this early silent picture. Once thought lost, the film was reconstructed from two safety elements held by the Academy Film Archive, with original color tinting reconstructed digitally. The main title card and final reel do not survive in any form, and these scenes were filled in with stills from the Margaret Herrick Library and text from the 1916 copyright registration. Note by Academy Film Archive Short Film Preservationist Tessa Idlewine. DIRECTED BY: Thomas Ince, Charles Giblyn. WRITTEN BY: C. Gardner Sullivan. WITH: Billie Burke, William H. Thompson, William Desmond, Charles Ray. 1916. 43 min. USA. B&W. English. Silent. 35mm. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
role, Bogart’s performance is impressive as a charismatic grifter who romances the daughter of the jury’s foreman at a sensational trial they both attend. Call It Murder is a psychological drama that examines concepts of justice and truth in relation to capital punishment, directed by Broadway director-producer Chester Erskine for his film debut. Note by Academy Film Archive Preservation Archivist Brianna Toth. DIRECTED BY: Chester Erskine. WITH: Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Fox, Henry Hull, O. P. Heggie, Richard Whorf. 1934. 74 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Blackhawk Films with funding from the estate of David Shepard from a 35mm nitrate duplicate negative and 35mm nitrate fine grain in the Lobster Films collection.
Harlem on the Prairie Thu, Dec 1 | 7:30pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere
The Academy Museum launches its first-ever celebration of newly preserved and restored films from the Academy Film Archive as well as work by archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers from around the globe. Established in 1991, the Academy Film Archive is home to one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world. Dedicated to the preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition, and study of motion pictures, the collection boasts over 230,000 items and is ever-growing and evolving to accommodate new materials in need of safekeeping. On an ongoing basis, the Archive’s team of dedicated individuals actively works to save films from deterioration, breathing new life into works once lost, damaged, or unprojectable. Present Past convenes 50 films from the Academy Film Archive and beyond— narrative features, shorts, documentaries, and experimental films. Each restoration in Present Past will be celebrating its Los Angeles, North American, or World Premiere, with many filmmakers, subjects, archivists, and preservationists appearing in person to discuss their work. Thanks to Michael Pogorzelski, Academy Film Archive; Bret Berg, American Genre Film Archive; John Klacsmann, Anthology Film Archives; Ryan Krivoshey, Grasshopper Films; Emily Woodburne, Janus Films; Jinko Gotoh and Mindy Johnson; Dave Kehr and Katie Trainor, MoMA; Jason Jackowski, NBCUniversal; Andrea Kalas, Paramount Pictures; Viviana García Besné and Peter Conheim, Permanencia Voluntaria. Programmed by K.J. Relth-Miller and Bernardo Rondeau unless otherwise noted. Note credits can be found with each program.
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death Sat, Dec 3 | 10pm | DGT | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere In this Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, Vincent Price stars as the charmingly villainous Prince Prospero, terrorizing his friends and foes alike while the plague destroys the world around him. With his stunning cinematography, the film revealed Nicolas Roeg to be a true master of color, highlighting rich hues of reds, yellows, and blues throughout. Thanks to the United States’ primness toward sex and religion, and British prudishness toward violence, the film was censored in both countries. From the 35mm original picture negative and a 35mm Technicolor print, this classic has now lovingly been restored to director Roger Corman’s original, full-length vision. Note by Academy Film Archive Short Film Preservationist Tessa Idlewine. DIRECTED BY: Roger Corman. WRITTEN BY: Charles Beaumont, R. Wright Campbell. WITH: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher. 1964. 89 min. USA, UK. Color. Scope. English. 35mm. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
The Misfits with Call It Murder Sat, Dec 3 | 7pm | TMT
The Misfits | North American Restoration Premiere Penned by Arthur Miller, this John Huston film centers on the recently divorced Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) and her relationship with an aging former cowboy, Gay (Clark Gable), who now survives by rounding up wild mustangs to sell them to the slaughterhouse. Although considered a commercial failure at the time of its original release, the film has since been regarded as a classic by critics and audiences, perhaps notably because it was the final completed film of both Gable and Monroe. The film was restored in 4K from the 35mm original picture negative. Note by Academy Film Archive Short Film Preservationist Tessa Idlewine. DIRECTED BY: John Huston. WRITTEN BY: Arthur Miller. WITH: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift. 1961. 125 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Call It Murder | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere Originally released as Midnight —just a few short months before the crackdown of the Production Code—with Humphrey Bogart cast as a secondary character, the film was reissued in 1949 as Call It Murder , with Bogart given top billing after he had risen to stardom. Even in this lesser
Connie Harris. 1937. 57 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Harlem on the Prairie Thu, Dec 1 | 7:30pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere Singer Herbert Jeffrey makes his cinematic debut in this long-unavailable film as the strapping young cowpoke who comes to the rescue of a traveling medicine show battling outlaws for buried treasure. Jeffrey would go on to play horse-riding heroes in several subsequent Westerns, garnering the nickname “The Bronze Buckaroo.” Filmed at a Black-owned ranch in Apple Valley, California, and also starring Spencer Williams (director of The Blood of Jesus and Dirty Gertie from Harlem, U.S.A. ) and doo-wop quartet the Four Tones, Harlem on the Prairie packs thrills, romance, and comedy—chiefly thanks to Mantan Moreland and Flournoy E. Miller—into its economic hour-long runtime. Note by Academy Museum Senior Director, Film Programs Bernardo Rondeau. DIRECTED BY: Sam Newfield. WRITTEN BY: Fred Myton. WITH: Herbert Jeffrey, Flournoy E. Miller, Mantan Moreland,
Daily Rains with Drylongso Fri, Dec 2 | 7:30pm | TMT In person: Cauleen Smith.
Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni with I Be Done Been Was Is Sun, Dec 4 | 2pm | TMT In person: Mirra Bank and Debra J. Robinson.
Using the language of structural filmmaking, Southern California-born multimedia artist, filmmaker, and educator Cauleen Smith (b. 1967) has created some of the most indelible explorations of the female Black experience in the American avant-garde. Drawing from science fiction and Third Cinema and rooted in an inquisition of truth, her more than 30 short-and long-form works bring to light the vulnerabilities of Black women in America, which are often silenced or rendered invisible. Completed while studying for her Bachelor’s in Creative Arts at San Francisco State University, Daily Rains is a measured, poetic work that confronts head-on the micro- and macro-aggressions
Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni | Restoration World Premiere Once crowned “The Princess of Black Poetry,” the prolific and political Nikki Giovanni has become one of America’s most popular poets. This lyrical and visually provocative film details the poet’s coming-of-age against the background of her times: the Civil Rights struggle, the Vietnam War, and the Women’s Movement. Independent director and producer Mirra Bank skillfully weaves performance footage with evocative photomontage, archival footage, and colorful
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