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Please note: The exhibition Erica Baum: the bite in the ribbon—a paper show is closed today due to technical issues in the gallery. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to reopen it as soon as possible.

You Bring Our Work to Life

Pinto Ben
William S. Hart, United States, 1915

This year the Moving Image Department has embarked on a multiyear project funded by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation to reconstruct and restore 11 films of one of the first western superstars, William S. Hart. Currently we are working on the 1915 Hart film, Pinto Ben. The George Eastman Museum has conducted a worldwide search for the best remaining film elements, which will be scanned, digitally reconstructed, restored, and finally recorded back out to 35 mm film. For this two reel film, we are combining sections of four different prints—two from the George Eastman Museum, one from the Library of Congress, and one from the French Film Archive (CNC). When we are finished with Pinto Ben, and the other William S. Hart titles for this project, these will be the most definitive versions of the films that exist.