Thursday, August 7, 2008

"The Salvation Hunters" To Be Preserved By MOMA

The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) newsletter notes that Josef von Sternberg's first film, The Salvation Hunters, has received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to be preserved by the Museum of Modern Art (i.e. costs cover a preservation master and two viewing copies). Film historian Tag Gallagher is quoted in AMIA as saying: "It is good news indeed that a restoration of this groundbreaking feature is in the works."— so perhaps the film is actually getting a full restoration as well. In addition to being von Sternberg's debut, The Salvation Hunters is also noteworthy as a forerunner in American independent filmmaking. This film has a checkered past in terms of its evaluation. As noted by Gallagher in the AMIA mention, the film was "hissed at its premiere and later hailed a masterpiece." Currently there is an imdb review that rates it 2 out of 10! Hopefully a DVD release is on the way so we can all evaluate it....

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