By Travis Johnson
It is flat-out amazing what you find when you look.
Queensland film enthusiast Joel Archer has done a momentous service for film history, digging through countless old theatres, backyard sheds and other likely locations to uncover four previously lost movies from the early decades of the medium. Thanks to his efforts, they’ll now be screened at the Gallery of Modern Art.
His finds include two Italian shorts, Attilio Fabbri’s The Redeeming Angel (1913) and Roberto Roberti’s Prisoner of the Owls (1913); a German feature, The White Desert (1922) by Ernst Wendt; and Seven Sinners (1925), the first American feature by Oscar winner, Lewis Milestone.
This marks the modern world premiere of Seven Sinners 1925, which has been restored by the Academy Film Archive. The films will be accompanied by live music performed by David Bailey on the Gallery’s 1929 Wurlitzer organ.
The films will screen from February 5 – 19. for more info, go to the official site.
