Every year, the Dutch Silent Film Festival presents recent discoveries and restorations. Carefully restored by film archives and film laboratories from all over the world. But how exactly does this process work and who are the people who bring these films back to life on the big screen? Film restorer Maria Fuentes gives us a look behind the scenes and shares her process, the tools she uses and how she collaborates with various film archives to make these gems from the silent film era accessible again. A talk illustrated with excerpts from films, followed by the screening of two restorations on which Maria collaborated: the short film Jane’s Declaration of Independence, about a young woman who resists her father and decides to marry the soldier she loves, and the main film Soleil et ombre. Based on the short story “L’Espagnole” by Maria Star, and co-directed, adapted, produced and performed in two different roles by Musidora, is Soleil et ombre a film of stunning beauty, born of a unique vision. Filmed in Andalusia, it tells the story of a passionate love triangle: Juana is engaged to the famous bullfighter Antonio. When he is seduced by a foreign woman, a tragic story of rejection and revenge unfolds. Maria Fuentes is a film restorer based in the Netherlands. As Fontibula, she has worked in digital preservation since 2008 and digital restorations since 2017, including films such as Padlocked and Foolish Wives. Working with the San Francisco Film Preserve, she has collaborated with many archives, including Eye Filmmuseum, the British Film Institute, the Library of Congress, the Cinémathèque française and MoMA. She also teaches film restoration at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián.
Preceded by Jane’s Declaration of Independence (US, 1915). director: Charles Giblyn. Length: 18 min. English intertitles.
Live musical accompaniment by Daan van den Hurk (Piano) & Tijn van der Sanden (Guitar)
