- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,272
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Kino Lorber is releasing one of the most important disc sets of 2018, and it's the perfect gift for the serious cinephile.
Having handled, nitrate silent films, I can attest to the sheer bravura love and passion that has gone into the production of this set. Those who read my words are aware that I'm a quality fanatic, but that goes out the window in this case, as many of these films - shorts and features, are still with us by chance and fortune - some only as extracts, or missing entire reels.
But they are.
And that's all that's important.
The films were directed by Alice Guy-Blanche, Lois Webber, Grace Cunard & Francis Ford, Cleo Madison, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Mabel Normand, Angela Murray Gibson, Zora Neale Hurston, Lule Warrenton, Marion E. Wong, Elsie Jane Wilson, Nell Shipman, Ida May Park, Charles Bryant (and Alla Nazimova), Walter Lang & Dorothy Davenport Reid, Lita Lawrence, and others.
For full disclosure, while most cinephiles are aware of Alice Guy-Blanche, Mabel Normand and Lois Webber, there are directors listed above, that I'm discovering for the first time.
Quality is as one might presume, from quite excellent to problematic, inclusive of nitrate decomp, but as noted above...
It's there.
All have musical accompaniment, some are tinted, and digital clean-up varies.
But bottom line, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is a gift from the gods, courtesy of Kino Lorber.
Adding a copy to your own library, or purchasing for a friend, advances film preservation and restoration.
Very Highly Recommended
RAH
Having handled, nitrate silent films, I can attest to the sheer bravura love and passion that has gone into the production of this set. Those who read my words are aware that I'm a quality fanatic, but that goes out the window in this case, as many of these films - shorts and features, are still with us by chance and fortune - some only as extracts, or missing entire reels.
But they are.
And that's all that's important.
The films were directed by Alice Guy-Blanche, Lois Webber, Grace Cunard & Francis Ford, Cleo Madison, Ruth Ann Baldwin, Mabel Normand, Angela Murray Gibson, Zora Neale Hurston, Lule Warrenton, Marion E. Wong, Elsie Jane Wilson, Nell Shipman, Ida May Park, Charles Bryant (and Alla Nazimova), Walter Lang & Dorothy Davenport Reid, Lita Lawrence, and others.
For full disclosure, while most cinephiles are aware of Alice Guy-Blanche, Mabel Normand and Lois Webber, there are directors listed above, that I'm discovering for the first time.
Quality is as one might presume, from quite excellent to problematic, inclusive of nitrate decomp, but as noted above...
It's there.
All have musical accompaniment, some are tinted, and digital clean-up varies.
But bottom line, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is a gift from the gods, courtesy of Kino Lorber.
Adding a copy to your own library, or purchasing for a friend, advances film preservation and restoration.
Very Highly Recommended
RAH