Library of Congress study sees troubling loss of silent feature films

LOS ANGELES _ A new study by the Library of Congress reveals some disquieting facts about the country's early film heritage. Of the nearly 11,000 silent feature films that were produced and distributed in the United States from 1912 to 1929, the report says, only 3,311 are known to exist today _ and fewer than half of those, 1,575, exist in their original 35mm release format. The others are either incomplete or survive only in foreign versions or lower-quality formats such as 28mm or 16mm. Previous studies have documented how many silent feature films were produced in the U.S. during that period. But the Library of Congress report being...