Tag: public domain

Soviet Communist Party saved 194 lost Hollywood silent films…

Pretty amazing stuff: In a large mahogany box embellished with silk pockets and Cyrillic lettering, 10 lost pieces of America’s cultural heritage recently landed in Culpeper, Va. – thanks, in a roundabout way, to the Soviet Union and a bureaucratic penchant for filing. The box, a gift from the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library to the … Continue reading “Soviet Communist Party saved 194 lost Hollywood silent films…”

Pretty amazing stuff:
In a large mahogany box embellished with silk pockets and Cyrillic lettering, 10 lost pieces of America’s cultural heritage recently landed in Culpeper, Va. – thanks, in a roundabout way, to the Soviet Union and a bureaucratic penchant for filing.

The box, a gift from the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library to the Library of Congress, contained digital copies of 10 silent films that had been thought to be lost to history. The titles, such as “Valley of the Giants,” produced in 1919, and “The Call of the Canyon,” produced in 1923, may seem unfamiliar, but the movies were made by some of the era’s biggest names.

Now if it was a Disney movie that was being ripped off…

You can bet a big dollar lawsuit would have been in the works, real quick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4GR0DconsU&feature=player_embedded Kimba The White Lionvs. The Lion King

You can bet a big dollar lawsuit would have been in the works, real quick.

Portal to public domain videos online

This website provides nice orderly links to streaming videos of old films that reside at Google Video, Dumpalink, iFilm, and YouTube. The collection is a combination of works that are out-of-copyright (public domain), orphaned (obscure videos that are still under copyright but probably forgotten by their owners), and some that are more recent and possibly … Continue reading “Portal to public domain videos online”

This website provides nice orderly links to streaming videos of old films that reside at Google Video, Dumpalink, iFilm, and YouTube. The collection is a combination of works that are out-of-copyright (public domain), orphaned (obscure videos that are still under copyright but probably forgotten by their owners), and some that are more recent and possibly released by the rightful owners for free internet distribution. There are hundreds of titles to browse through here. You say you want some examples. How ’bout Daffy Duck in Duck Amuck, Freaks, and dozens of recent political documentaries. Some of the more provocative titles include Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror, The Future of Food, and The Yes Men.

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National Archives Video on Google

This is a link to about 100 public domain newsreels produced by NASA,United Newsreel, and Department of the Interior. They range in length from 10-30 minutes. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here. Examples include 1930s titles from the Dept of Interior, 1940s war newsreels, and “Who’s out there?” a 1975 film narrated by Orson … Continue reading “National Archives Video on Google”

This is a link to about 100 public domain newsreels produced by NASA,United Newsreel, and Department of the Interior. They range in length from 10-30 minutes. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here. Examples include 1930s titles from the Dept of Interior, 1940s war newsreels, and “Who’s out there?” a 1975 film narrated by Orson Welles on the likelihood of intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Max Schreck is just a click away

Yes, given that F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) is now in the public domain, Google video is hosting a digital copy. For those who may not know about this film, it is the first popular telling of the Dracula story on film. Though a silent film, its haunting gothic imagery and the other-worldly creepiness of … Continue reading “Max Schreck is just a click away”

Yes, given that F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) is now in the public domain, Google video is hosting a digital copy. For those who may not know about this film, it is the first popular telling of the Dracula story on film. Though a silent film, its haunting gothic imagery and the other-worldly creepiness of Max Schreck in the role of Count Dracula became archetypes of the horror genre.

Schreck proved so convincing in the role that it inspired a fictional film, Shadow of the Vampire (2000), that suggested the actor really was a vampire.

Th original Nosferatu was faithfully remade, though with sound, by Werner Herzog in 1979 with his alter-ego Klaus Kinski playing the Count.

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