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The Bioscope
Comments and Thoughts on Animation and Film by Harvey Deneroff
David Shepard, one of the most important figures in film restoration and preservation, passed away on Tuesday, January 31 st , after a long illness. I was proud to have known him, starting when we both started working for the American Film Institute’s Archives Division in 1968, soon after its founding. David was the AFI’s first film preservation officer, while I worked across town at the Library of Congress on the Institute’s catalog of American films. The AFI was tasked with implementing the government’s f
My involvement with his work at the AFI was minimal, though I recall briefly subbing for him in helping acquire what I believe was the Institute’s first acquisition, the first screen version of The Desert Song (Roy Del Ruth, 1929). I also recall being present when David unpacked Paramount’s studio print of E.A. Dupont’s Varieté ( Variety ) (1925). Looking at the first reel, it quickly became apparent it was the uncut American version, not the abbreviated Museum of Modern Art one; it was print that eventuall
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The Bioscope