Help scan and preserve FLASHES OF THE PAST (1925)

This GoFundMe is established to fund the scanning and preservation, as well as bringing to the public a rare, special edition 35mm nitrate newsreel from 1925.

Pathé Exchange, Inc., a company based in New York City, released it in 1925 to theaters; 3 times longer than the average newsreel and tinted, FLASHES OF THE PAST covered, in review form, some of the major events and personalities from 1910-1925.

In razor-sharp image quality, the newsreel shows scenes that include the following events and personalities:

Theodore Roosevelt receives Nobel Peace Prize

King George of England proclaimed Emperor of India at Delhi Durbar (1911)

Gold miners riot, South Africa (1912)

King of England guest of Kaiser Wilhelm (1913)

Suffragette demonstrations in London

Mrs. Parkhurst, commander and chief of suffragette army

Emperor Nicholas of Russia and Family (1913)

First public ceremony of the Prince of Wales at 20 years of age (1914)

Franz Joseph of Austria (1914)

Order for the mobilization of German troops signed by the Kaiser

French call to arms in Paris

The exodus from Belgium

Gen. Joffre, hero of the Marne

Russian army in Galicia, en route to Hungarian border

Russian fleet defeats Turks in the Bosphorus TINTED

Revolution sweeps Russia (March 16, 1917) TINTED

President Wilson sings declaration entering USA in the Great War TINTED

Sec. of War Baker draws first number of the selective draft TINTED

Gen. Pershing arrives in France TINTED

Troops going “over there” TINTED

Marines fight to glory at Chateau Thierry (July 21, 1918) TINTED

German Soldiers surrendering in the trenches TINTED

New devices for the war: The Flame Projector TINTED

The Depth Bomb TINTED

Result of trench warfare, the tank! TINTED

Armistice (November 11, 1918) TINTED

27th Division homecoming parade (March 1919) TINTED

1st flight across Atlantic, Lt. Commander Read (1919)

The Peace Conference at Versailles

“Devil-Dogs” parade in New York, Maj. Gen. Lejeune

Irish civil war

Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork dies after hunger strike

Ireland a free state, treaty with England

Unknown Soldier enshrined in nation’s capital

Allied heroes united at American Legion Convention in Kansas City;

Gen. Jacques of Belgium

Gen. Diaz of Italy

Admiral Beatty of Great Britain

Gen. Pershing

Marshal Foch

The burning of Smyrna (1922) TINTED

2,000 victims faced death by starvation

Army and navy bombing tests to ascertain value of planes in warfare

Earthquake ravages Japan (September 1, 1923)

President Harding Dead!

Calvin Coolidge takes office at 30th president

American flyers circle the globe by air (1924)

Thousands pay tribute to Nicolai Lenin-march in Red Square

Homage of Russia to fallen leader

President Coolidge inaugurated (March 4, 1925)

President Calvin Coolidge and Vice-President Charles G. Dawes

Images of frames of this newsreel may be seen at this Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=MABHollywood&set=a.914425817360692

Steps in bringing Pathé News FLASHES OF THE PAST (1925, tinted) 22 min., to the public include:

1. Safety shipping to Texas for Scanning by Film-Tech Cinema Systems

2. Scanning in 5K “overscan” which includes the sprocket perfections on each side of image, capturing all of the image on the film surface.

3. Return safety shipping to Sacramento with hard drive with the scan in MP4 and PRO rez versions.

4. Image stabilization of digital files and cropping to 1.33 (silent film aspect ratio) frame size.

5. Digital repair of damaged frames, short intertitles, starting and ending titles

6. Commissioning and recording a musical score to marry with the image for later sharing online.

7. Offering the completed digital file of the newsreel to the film festivals for possible use in the 2025, to celebrate 100 years of this newsreel and its re-discovery.

8. The placement, before the end of 2025, of the newsreel online for public sharing and enjoyment 100 years after it was produced.

Donors to the GoFundMe will receive screen credit following the end title, unless they wish to remain anonymous. They will also receive a private viewing link, when ready, to the completed project prior to its public premiere and later public online availability.

The story of the rediscovery of FLASHES OF THE PAST

Many years ago Matías Bombal was allowed to pull all the film out of an old theatre, mostly boxes of small rolls of film like trailers and snipes, a reel of which was this Pathé newsreel special (A review of events from 1910-1925, with tinted sections in blue and sepia.) The main title of the newsreel was missing; it started with a torn, creased, notched and damaged section with a crudely animated opening illustrating how news was recorded through history... incredible images follow, no doubt printed from camera negatives, for they are razor sharp and crystal-clear.

Matías stored it carefully in a fire-safe container until 2017 when his house and film storage area had an electrical fire due to faulty aluminum wiring. Matías was out of his house for 3 years whilst reconstruction of his home was ongoing, at the end of that time, when what was salvaged was returned by his insurance company, he found that the newsreel had survived the fire without flaw, other than being 99 years old. Of course, it was still missing its main title sequence. FLASH, as it were, forward to April 8, 2024. Matías finally got his editing table assembled again for the first time since the 2017 fire. In going through unidentified rolls of film on cores in boxes for the purpose of organization, he encountered a loose end that had animation… it looked familiar! I was in fact the title sequence that had been missing from the front of the newsreel for more than 50 years! Evidently, Matías had, when removing the film from that theatre so many years ago, also grabbed the title sequence in a box of mostly trailers and snipes, which miraculously was not destroyed in the fire either! He had never had the time to go through that box until decades after he brought it home.

Now FLASHES OF THE PAST is complete, one year before the newsreel special’s 100th anniversary. Sadly, the combination film shrinkage and Bell & Howell perforations will never allow this original print to be projected again as designed. Thus, a scan is vital to preserve this digitally, as it is one of only two known prints in the world.

Thanks for your consideration of contributing to this film preservation project.

-Matias Bombal's Hollywood

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