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Slate has an interesting piece looking at US claims on seized property in Cuba, an issue that has come up again since the Obama administration made the first steps towards normalizing relations with the country:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... could.html" target="_blank

There's a link in the article to a claim filed by Disney in 1971 for 35mm and 16mm film prints in Cuba:

http://www.justice.gov/fcsc/cuba/docume ... 3-2544.pdf" target="_blank

While Disney's prints probably have little or no value at this point, I am curious if we have a good sense of what's in Cuban archives. Is there still some lost silent or early talkie material still on the island?

I can tell you that as soon as the news of normalizing relations with Cuba hit earlier this year, I asked one of my senior archive friends to specifically ask about CONVENTION CITY. Sadly, nothing on that title there. Worth a shot!

We have a poor sense of what's held in major US archives. There are frequent sessions in Culpepper for projecting stuff and trying to figure out what it is, which they do with a sense of certainty that I reserve for figuring out which socks to wear today. I can plunge my hands into the sock drawer and pull out two socks without worrying they won't match because they are all the same.

Anything in the Cuban Archives will probably be under a local Spanish title. It may have been reedited, like Gosfilmfond used to edit American silents for propaganda. It may be fragmentary. The only way we will find out is to send the Silent Comedy Mafia on an all-expense-paid junket.

Bob

Universal's Spanish version of DRACULA was restored after recovering a reel from a Cuban archive.

It's probably quite easy to say for me because I don't live there, but... I'll be sorry to see Cuba (re)turn into some sort of US backyard. Pity. It's relative unspoiltness will draw crowds and end itself. It will become another nameless face in the crowd.

I know the article is more subtle than "Cuba will be cured from its backwardness by US capitalism" but that is what it will amount to. But did you know that Cuba is currently one of the few countries that is actually economically sustainable over a long period of time?

Scoundrel wrote:Universal's Spanish version of DRACULA was restored after recovering a reel from a Cuban archive.

Yes, and it's interesting to notice that some years ago, the Cuban Film Archives sent the complete Cuban print to the Cinémathèque Française at the Musée Pompidou for a programme of "Mexican" (?) films, and I saw it on the big screen. The little defect noticeable on the Cuban reel included in the DVD and BluRay that Universal released (this little defect appears only in this reel, and was partially corrected in the recent BluRay) was present during all the movie, so it's a chance that Universal was able to locate 90% of the movie in their own vaults. This being said it was a pleasure to watch this version on the big screen.