KEEPERS OF THE FRAME
Year: 1999
Country:
United States
Run Time:
70 minutes
It's true. In a heavily-shielded vault near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, visitors from other worlds lie in storage. These are emissaries from ages past, the worlds of Teddy Roosevelt, Mary Pickford, Al Jolson. They are films, news-reels, nickelodeon reels, early features on volatile nitrate motion-picture stock, which must be carefully handled by Library of Congress experts because of an unpredictable tendency to degrade, decay, even explode. This documentary details how historians, technicians, and private collectors (the late actor Roddy McDowall was one) contend against time to rescue the world's celluloid heritage. There are tales of discovery worthy of Indiana Jones, with priceless footage - like America's first feature film, the 1912 "Richard III" - turning up under hockey rinks, concrete slabs, even in nests of snakes. And shocking recent losses, like Alan Alda discovering his "M*A*S*H" episodes faded to green. We are pleased to note that KEEPERS OF THE FRAME returns again and again to Ohio for stories like that of Dayton hobbyist John Harvey, who single-handedly maintains the might Cinerama projection system (Leonard Maltin wants Harvey to be the first projectionist to be awarded an Oscar). Anyone who cares about film should watch Mark McLaughlin's passionate feature.
Screenplay
Mark McLaughlin, Randy Gitsch
Director
Mark McLaughlin
Producer
Randy Gitsch
Cinematography
Rich Lerner, David McLaughlin
Editing
Roderick Kent
Principal Cast
Alan Alda, Roddy McDowell, Debbie Reynolds, Leonard Maltin, Herb Jeffries, Stan Brakhage, Forrest J. Ackerman, John Harvey, Jean Picker Firstenberg
Mount PIlot Productions
1685 S. Colorado Blvd., Ste. S-139
Denver, CO 80222
tel: (303) 758 4356
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