NitrateVille.com

https://www.nfsa.gov.au/events/nfsa-res ... -days-live

trailer here -

Dir: Tom Gibson, PG, United States, 1924, 54 mins
Silent with live musical accompaniment.

Following a year long restoration project, we bring you the Australian premiere of a film once thought lost to Hollywood mythology.

In Three Days to Live Capra is credited as Editor and Titles, two very creative roles. It is also thought, according to biographer Jim McBride, that Capra was assistant director.

The film is a mystery set across San Francisco’s share market an exotic India, where a shadowy investor is targeting fellow investors forcing them into bankruptcy.

When Grace (Ora Carew) realises her father is being targeted seeks police protection but takes events into her own hands. Also starring Helen Howell who would later become Capra’s wife.

This special event screening includes detailed contextual and historical discussion by NFSA Film Curator Sally Jackson.


Forgot to add that it screens at NFSA in Canberra on February 5

Would anyone know what the protocol is with archives restoring films from another country? I'm curious as to why NFSA (an Australian government funded body) would restore an American film? Wouldn't they normally repatriate the material back to the US for restoration there?

I'm not saying that "Three Days To Live" shouldn't be restored but there are probably lots of Australian films that still need funding for restoration first.

My first thought upon hearing about this was similar. A restored Capra film is impressive, but where is the imperative, when we have been seeing restorations of Australian silents arriving at the rate of one every five years or so? Presumably the decision was made on the basis of a commercial return. If so, I hope that any profits are parlayed into a nice DVD release of, say, Silks and Saddles (1921), or the very fine surviving material on The Far Paradise (1928), or - well, the list goes on ...

Archives have certainly restored productions from other countries - the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam is just one that springs to mind - but I would be interested to know to what extent they balance that with the preservation of Dutch silent film, for example. I am aware of at least one rare Australian film in a foreign collection which has been offered to the NFSA for repatriation, but they showed no interest.