On July 16, 2016, the American Cinematheque, The Mary Pickford Foundation, Seeking Our Story, and Rack Focus
present a silent classic with a modern soundtrack: the surround sound premiere andnitrate restoration of Little Annie Rooney at the Egyptian Theatre
in Hollywood. This 4K high definition restoration with an original modern
soundtrack provides today's audience with the ultimate viewing experience of
this 90-year-old film.
Prior to the film presentation is a panel discussion with
the Mary Pickford Foundation's CEO Henry Stotsenberg and Archive & Legacy
Director Elaina Archer; film archivist Heather Linville of the Academy Film
Archive; and composer Andy Gladbach.
The Seeking Our Story organization (which is dedicated to
celebrating the accomplishments of women behind the camera throughout history,
such as Pickford) and Rack Focus, an advocacy group calling for more
opportunities for women filmmakers, will host a networking opportunity for
female filmmakers.
The process of restoring and scoring Little Annie
Rooney took several years. The original tinted nitrate print in Mary
Pickford's personal collection at the Library of Congress, made from the camera
negative in 1925, was brought to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences archive in Los Angeles.
Through the Mary Pickford Foundation's extraordinary,
multi-year partnership with AMPAS, the Academy Film Archive preserved the film
photo-chemically, creating new 35mm preservation masters and prints.
The preservation master was then scanned at 4K resolution
so that the MPF, in cooperation with AMPAS, could create a digital version,
evaluating the film frame by frame, removing dirt and other signs of deterioration
to perfectly match the original nitrate tints and tones.
Then, through the MPF Composition Program at Pepperdine
University, an extremely gifted young composer, Andy Gladbach, was chosen to
create a new sound track for the film. Mentored by professionals, Gladbach was
joined by a 16 piece orchestra that included three percussionists, as well as a
conductor and engineers, to record his original music.
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| Andy Gladbach (left) working on the score |
The end result combines and showcases the finest work of
artists, craftspeople and musicians from this century and from 1925.
Little Annie Rooney (1925, 94 min, USA, Dir: William
Beaudine) stars Mary Pickford as a tomboy of the tenements who tends to her
brother and widowed father in a multi-ethnic New York neighborhood, recreated
entirely on the backlot of the Pickford Fairbanks studio. Her crush on a young
man (William Haines) from a rival gang results in complications when he is
charged with murder. Pickford produced, starred in and wrote this comedy with
pathos (under the name of Catherine Hennessey).
Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a multifaceted pioneer of
early cinema. She was a talented performer, a creative producer and a savvy
businesswoman who helped shape the film industry as we know it today. Pickford rose steadily to fame at a time when there
was no path to follow.
With Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W.
Griffith, she founded the United Artists Studio in 1919. She was among the
twelve founders of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences (and the only woman), a founder of the Society
of Independent Motion Picture Producers in 1941, and the last of the original
United Artists founders to sell her interest in the mid-1950s. Her final film
as an actress, Secrets, was released in 1933, the same week that newly elected
President Roosevelt declared a bank holiday, closing down all financial
institutions at the height of the Depression.
She had already established herself as one of the most
successful actresses of all time, won an Academy Award for her first
"talkie," Coquette, and went on to receive an honorary Oscar for her
contribution to motion pictures in 1976. Pickford was also an early leader in the film
preservation movement and an ardent supporter of creating a museum devoted to
the art of moviemaking, as well as a philanthropist.
Today, the Mary Pickford Foundation actively cooperates
with film archives worldwide on joint preservation projects, implements
educational outreach programs in universities nationwide, and works to bring
restored and rare films to new audiences in theaters throughout the world. The
Foundation is also partnering with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences to support the Academy's planned museum and has established an annual
Mary Pickford Celebration of Silent Film. In addition, the Foundation continues
to add material to the Mary Pickford Collection at the Academy's Margaret
Herrick Library where they are working to professionally digitize documents,
scrapbooks and photographs for future generations to study.
Throughout her life, Mary Pickford was committed to
hands-on philanthropy and her Foundation continues to promote that philosophy
by using the power of its people and
other assets to make social change. For example, the Foundation has initiated
and manages a number of charitable projects.
Co-presenting the event is the organization Seeking Our
Story. This group of filmmakers and film enthusiasts seek education and
inspiration through viewing and discussing films made by women. They currently
present one film a month, each highlighting a different women director and
exemplifying their influence on film history.
- Cari Beauchamp
