CHRISTOPHER BIRD
FILM EDITOR
I have a life long interest in early cinema, and collect rare films and professional equipment from the silent era.
I was editor on the restoration The Cat and the Canary (1927). I also edited and co-directed several film history documentaries with Oscar-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow.
I have been lucky enough to uncover and preserve a few lost films, including four American silent feature films, a Harold Lloyd comedy, a film by Georges Melies' brother, and the earliest known fragment of a Lon Chaney feature film.
I have put on shows of original prints from my collection, projected on 100-year old hand cranked projectors, at places including the Cinema Museum in London, the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, and the Electric Palace in Harwich:
https://www.eadt.co.uk/lifestyle/silent-film-show-electric-palace-harwich-8978166
My next show is at the Cinema Museum on 13th September, where I will be screening original 28mm prints on a restored 1917 projector, with live musical accompaniment:
THE GUNFIGHTER
For some years I have reconstructing the previously lost William S Hart film The Gunfighter (1917), which was unveiled at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in 2019:
https://anttialanenfilmdiary.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-gun-fighter-1917-reconstruction-by.html
Here's an article about how the film was reconstructed:
https://moviessilently.com/2019/11/17/the-gun-fighter-1917-a-silent-film-review/
I am currently working with the HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive at USC to restore a lost 1926 serial I have in my collection.
