AboutJason O`Brien Expertise I majored in Film and have an extensive knowledge of films, contemporary, classic, and silent films, and I also have a huge knowledge of the Academy Awards and other various film awards, so I can help you with any questions in regards to the Oscars, including those helpful trivia questions!
Question My grandfather was in 2 silent films, 'The Challenge of Chance' (1919) and 'The Heart Punch' (1915). I cannot find any existance of either of them in the U.S. Is there a chance that they could be in some vault in another country? Don't the US film archives keep in touch with film archives in other countries? Is there a main source for finding lost or hard-to-find silent movies without having to write or call every archive in the world?
Answer Silent films are especially hard to track down, as some 60% of all silent films have been lost forever. Films used to be produced on highly flammable film stock, and a lot burned, and back in the early days of cinema, no one really thought of saving films for future historical purposes. So unfortunately, we've lost a whole lot of our early motion picture history. I'm not sure of what resources there might be to try to track down old silent films ... the UCLA Film and Television Archive is one of the most well known archives in the world for preserving old films, so they might be a good first point of contact to maybe track down these films or know of an archive that might have them. Hope that helps you out!
