NOTE from DearMYRTLE: The following was received this morning from our friends at the National Archives (US). Please address all inquiries to Public.Affairs@nara.gov.
National Archives Leads Restoration of John Huston’s Let There Be Light
Washington, DC… The National Archives and Records Administration’s restoration of Let There Be Light
(1946), John Huston’s controversial World War II documentary about the
rehabilitation of psychologically scarred combat veterans, will screen
on the National Film Preservation Foundation’s website (www.filmpreservation.org) starting May 24. The free presentation will run from Memorial Day weekend through the end of August.
The third in the World War II trilogy commissioned from Academy Award-winning director John Huston by the US Army Signal Corps, Let There Be Light
follows the treatment of emotionally traumatized GIs from their
admission at a racially integrated psychiatric hospital to their reentry
into civilian life. Made
decades before post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) entered the
vocabulary, the documentary was created to help Americans understand the
challenges faced by returning veterans and to demonstrate that the
psychological wounds of war are very real and could heal through
therapy.
The
War Department pulled the film shortly before its premiere at the
Museum of Modern Art and commissioned a replacement in which white
actors took all the speaking roles and the GIs upbringing was blamed for
their psychological condition instead of war trauma. Let There Be Light was
first shown publicly in December 1980, after a chorus of Hollywood
leaders, joined by Vice President Walter Mondale, persuaded the
Secretary of the Army, Clifford Alexander, Jr., to authorize its release.
Let There Be Light holds a special place in documentary film history for its almost unprecedented use of unscripted interviews. Only now,
with the new National Archives soundtrack restoration, can these
interviews—many with battle-weary soldiers who can only mumble or
whisper personal stories—be heard with their full emotional force.
The
documentary will be available for free streaming and downloading and
presented with extras providing historical context, including:
· The Battle of San Pietro (1945), the second film in Huston’s WWII trilogy
· The Reawakening (1919), about the treatment of returning WW1 veterans
· A documentary about the National Archives Motion Picture Archival Unit
· Program notes about the film and its restoration
The restored soundtrack for Let There Be Light was donated by Chace Audio by Deluxe through the NFPF grant program. Sponsoring the premiere is Fandor.com, a web showcase for independent films and documentaries from around the world.
About the National Archives’ restoration of Let There Be Light
For the audio restoration of Let There Be Light, the National Archives provided a 35mm black-and-white print with a variable area optical sound track. The
print had numerous crackles and pops from previous screenings, in
addition to bumpy edits, audio level fluctuations in the original
recordings and sibilance in the sound track. The sound preservation work was done at Chace Audio by Deluxe, using the sound track from the 1957 black-and-white print. The sound track was converted to digital audio files at 24 bits and 96 kHz. For
preservation and long term archival reliability, the National Archives
had both a new mono 35mm optical sound track negative made to produce
new prints and a 35mm fullcoat 35mm polyester magnetic recording of the
original and restored tracks.
For the image restoration of Let There Be Light, the National Archives created a new picture negative from the 35mm black-and-white print. To
create the new negative, the Motion Picture Preservation Lab staff used
a wet-gate printer to alleviate the scratches on the original film. Wet-gate
printing utilizes a fluid with the same refractive index as the base of
the film and diffuses the light to minimize the appearance of scratches
in the resulting copy. The Preservation Lab then created HD scans.
The
Lab currently is scanning in the film at a 2K resolution (2048 x 1556)
and will use digital restoration tools to correct density shifts
introduced in previous generations of printing and to remove dirt, dust,
and scratches that were printed in or caused by mishandling. Once
the film is digitized, the Lab will capture the audio from the restored
magnetic track made at Chace Audio by Deluxe and create WAV files to
sync with the image. The files will then be transcoded to HD, DVD, and web quality.
The National Archives and Records Administration
is an independent Federal agency that preserves and shares with the
public records that trace the story of our nation, government, and the
American people. From the Declaration of Independence to accounts of
ordinary Americans, the holdings of the National Archives directly touch
the lives of millions of people. The National Archives is a public
trust upon which our democracy depends, ensuring access to essential
evidence that protects the rights of American citizens, documents the
actions of the government, and reveals the evolving national experience.
The National Archives, as the nation’s record keeper, holds one of the
world's largest moving image repositories, with more than 360,000 reels
of motion picture film titles. The
National Archives carries out its mission through a nationwide network
of archives, records centers, and Presidential Libraries, and on the
Internet at http://www.archives.gov.
The National Film Preservation Foundation
is the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save
America's film heritage. Since opening its doors in 1997, the NFPF has
supported film preservation in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and
Puerto Rico and has helped save more than 1,900 films. The NFPF is the
charitable affiliate of the National Film Preservation Board of the
Library of Congress.
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