The Repatriation of Motion Picture Films

Repatriation is based on the Latin word ‘patria.’ It is the act of bringing something back to the homeland. That something can be a person or an object. On this occasion it is the repatriation of motion picture films.

1980s and 1990s U.S. Film Repatriation

Projects coordinated by Susan Dalton of the American Film Institute Statistics and Archival Distribution, compiled by Paul Spehr.

• The Library of Congress has completed preservation of the recently repatriated silent film Ramona (1928), long considered lost. The newly preserved print of the Dolores Del Rio starrer premiered on March 29 at the Billy Wilder Theater in Los Angeles and screened at the Library's Packard Campus in Culpeper, VA on April 11. It will also screen at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival External May 30. Previously held by the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague, the film's titles were translated back into English by the Library of Congress.
  • True Story: Indiana Jones Rescues the Beautiful Maiden External, CityWatch, April 4, 2014.
  • Lost SCV-Related 1928 Film Reappears After Falling to Nazis, Soviets External, by Leon Worden, SCVnews.com, March 30, 2014.
  • No Longer Lost: Comments Upon the 2014 Premiere of Edwin Carewe's 1928 "Ramona," External by Hugh Munro Neely, March 29, 2014.
  • Special Screening: Ramona External, UCLA Film & Television Archive website.
  • The Commentary Track podcast, External "Episode 61: Hugh Munro Neely Returns," discussion of the discovery of Ramona, March 9, 2014.
• Dutch-American Partnership to Save and Make Available "Lost" American Silent Films External, National Film Preservation Foundation press release, March 30, 2014.
  • National Film Preservation Foundation Unearths Lost Silents in Pact with Dutch Museum, External Variety, March 30, 2014
  • A treasure trove of silent American movies found in Amsterdam External, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2014.
  • Lost Mickey Rooney Film Is Found and Set for Preservation External, Hollywood Reporter, March 30, 2014.
• Lost Orson Welles Film Found in Italy External, National Film Preservation Foundation press release, August 7, 2013.
  • An in-depth visit with Orson Welles: rediscovered footage for a planned stage production of 'Too Much Johnson,' External by Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2014.
  • Too Much Johnson Restored by George Eastman House External, GEH website, November 2013.
  • Early Film by Orson Welles Is Rediscovered External, by Dave Kehr, New York Times, August 7, 2013.
  • Lost Orson Welles Film Found in Italy External, Variety, August 7, 2013.
  • Too Much Johnson: All Welles, External The New Yorker, November 26, 2013.
  • Orson Welles's first professional film discovered in an Italian warehouse, External The Guardian, August 8, 2013.
    
• Repatriation: The Return of Indigenous Cultural Content External, by Seipati Bulane-Hopa in the Journal of Film Preservation, Vol. 85, October 2011.
• Russia Presents Library of Congress With Digital Copies of Lost U.S. Silent Films External, LoC Press Release, October 21, 2010.
  • Silent films recovered: These new releases are oldest in a long time External, by Peter Finn, Washington Post Staff Writer, Feb. 8, 2011.
  • American Silent Films Repatriated, Thanks To Russia, External by NPR Staff, March 6, 2011.
• National Film Preservation Foundation's New Zealand Project External
  • New Zealand-American Partnership to Save and Make Available External"Lost" External American Silent Films External, June 7, 2010.
  • Lost and Found: New Zealand External
  • US-NZ Film Archive partnership welcomed External, Official New Zealand government press release, June 8, 2010.
  • From Eastman House to New Zealand… to Early Hitchcock! External, posted by Leslie Anne Lewis, Oct. 19, 2011.
• New Australian-American Partnership to Save and Make Available "Lost" American Silent Films External, April 24, 2008.
  • Lost and Found Australia External
  • Official Press Release External

• Australia Returns Treasure Trove of Old American Films External, Kim I. Mills, Associated Press, Aug. 18, 1994.
  • U.S. Is Given 1,600 Early Movies External, New York Times, Sept. 3, 1994.
• Rescued from the Permafrost: The Dawson Collection of Motion Pictures, External by Sam Kula, Archivaria, the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists, Number 8, Summer 1979.
  • The Discovery, and Remarkable Recovery, of the King Tut’s Tomb of Silent-Era Cinema External, by Lawrence Weschler, Vanity Fair, Sept. 14, 2016.
  • Footage of Scandalous 1919 World Series Saved by Yukon Permafrost, External CBC News, May 8, 2014.
  • Focusing On the Dawson Film Find External, CBC News, interview with Michael and Kathy Gates, May 7, 2014.
  • Baseball History Unearthed: Rare Footage of Infamous 1919 'Black Sox' World Series Found in Yukon Permafrost External, by Tristin Hopper, National Post, May 4, 2014.
  • Old Films Provide New Attractions in Dawson External, by Dan Davidson, What's Up Yukon, June 20, 2013.
  • A Different Sort of Klondike Treasure External, by Jacqueline Ronson, Yukon News, May 24, 2013.
  • Film Preservation in Dawson City, External by Robert Lovenheim, Piddleville, Nov. 8, 2010.
  • Lost and Found No. 2 – Dawson City, ExternalThe Bioscope, August 27, 2007.