“We’re triaging the films,” Ms. Melville said, “so we can get to the worst case ones first."

Glimmers of highly inflammable hope, thrown into cold storage to halt degeneration, across the tyranny of distance: 75 or so "long-lost" American silent films found in the New Zealand Film archive.  Shady emphasis on their "repatriation" aside, more exciting is this:

"The preserved films will be made public through archival screenings and as streaming videos on the preservation foundation’s Web site, filmpreservation.org."


and this:


"Among the discoveries are several films that underline the major contribution made by women to early cinema. “The Girl Stage Driver” (1914) belongs to a large subgenre that Mr. Abel has identified as “cowboy girl” pictures; “The Woman Hater” (1910) is an early vehicle for the serial queen Pearl White; and “Won in a Cupboard” (1914) is the earliest surviving film directed by Normand, the leading female star of Mack Sennett’s Keystone comedies. The Clara Bow film “Maytime” (1923), presents the most famous flapper of the 1920s in an unusual costume role."