Lost Hollywood Gems Found in New Zealand.

"A collection of 75 rare US silent films have been discovered in New Zealand's national film archive.

The highlight of the collection is Upstream, a previously lost 1927 film by renowned director John Ford.

A drama starring 1920s screen icon Clara Bow was another a significant find.

"There are some real treasures in the collection," Brian Meacham of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts told New Zealand radio.

"New Zealand and Australia were the end of line from Hollywood," Meacham said.

"They end up being home to fabulous collections that through benign neglect can survive for years and years."

The films were originally sent to New Zealand for viewing. At the time it was decided it was too expensive to ship them back to the United States.

"These important films will be preserved and made available to both American and New Zealand audiences to enjoy," New Zealand's minister for arts, culture and heritage Chris Finlayson said."

I've posted the whole short article, but the link is here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/08/2921612.htm


Can you imagine the thrill of being the one to find them?!

I hope we'll all have the pleasure of seeing them some day.

That was right on the first page of the arts section of The New York Times. Terribly exciting. I thought it was amusing that the films had stayed in New Zealand all this time because it wasn't cost-effective to mail them back!