American Silent Films Repatriated, Thanks To Russia

Unfortunately, only about 20 percent of all movies shot during the silent era have been preserved in America. 80% are lost to history -- but occasionally, some show up in archives around the world.

This recently happened in a Russian archive, and the found films were returned to America. The Library of Congress has just received 10 long-lost films preserved by archivists at Russia's Gosfilmofond institute.

"American movies were, in fact, distributed in Russia and the former Soviet Union regularly from around 1910 right up to the outbreak of World War II," said Patrick Loughney, who is in charge of the Library of Congress' Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, where he will be taking care of the returned films.

There is apparently more to come. The Russian archivists are planning to return about 200 historical films in total.

Mosfilm Puts Soviet Movies On YouTube

The legendary Moscow film studio Mosfilm is putting a treasure trove of Soviet films on the Internet site, NPR reports.

Among the stash of Russian language films published on YouTube are Soviet classics and some lesser known movies. Mosfilm plans to upload five new films a week onto the dedicated YouTube channel.

I don't think the Mosfilm YouTube Channel is active yet, but I will post a link as soon as I find it.