Milestone Films Official Thread

[pro-bassoonist]

They care and they love movies.”
Martin Scorsese

Milestone was started in 1990 by Amy Heller and Dennis Doros out of their New York City one-room apartment and has since gained an international reputation for releasing classic cinema masterpieces, groundbreaking documentaries and American independent features. Thanks to the company’s work in rediscovering and releasing important films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles, Lionel Rogosin’s On the Bowery, Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba, Marcel Ophuls’s The Sorrow and the Pity, the Mariposa Film Group’s Word is Out, Shirley Clarke's The Connection and Ornette: Made in America, Milestone has long occupied a position as one of the country’s most influential independent distributors.

In 1995, Milestone received the first Special Archival Award from the National Society of Film Critics for its restoration and release of I Am Cuba. Manohla Dargis, then at the LA Weekly, chose Milestone as the 1999 “Indie Distributor of the Year.” In 2004, the National Society of Film Critics again awarded Milestone with a Film Heritage award. That same year the International Film Seminars presented the company its prestigious Leo Award and the New York Film Critics Circle voted a Special Award “in honor of 15 years of restoring classic films.” In November 2007, Milestone was awarded the Fort Lee Film Commission’s first Lewis Selznick Award for contributions to film history. Milestone/Milliarium won Best Rediscovery from the Il Cinema Ritrovato DVD Awards for its release of Winter Soldier in 2006 and again in 2010 for The Exiles.

In January 2008, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association chose to give its first Legacy of Cinema Award to Dennis Doros and Amy Heller of Milestone Film & Video “for their tireless efforts on behalf of film restoration and preservation.” And in March 2008, Milestone became an Anthology Film Archive’s Film Preservation honoree. In 2009, Dennis Doros was elected as one of the Directors of the Board of the Association of the Moving Image Archivists and established the organization’s press office in 2010.

In 2011, Milestone was the first distributor ever chosen for two Film Heritage Awards in the same year by the National Society of Film Critics for the release of On the Bowery and Word is Out. The American Library Association also selected Word is Out for their Notable Videos for Adult, the first classic film ever so chosen.

In December 2012, Milestone became the first-ever two-time winner of the prestigious New York Film Critics’ Circle’s Special Award, this time for its work in restoring, preserving and distributing the films of iconoclast director Shirley Clarke.

Important contemporary artists who have co-presented Milestone restorations include Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Barbara Kopple, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Thelma Schoonmaker, Jonathan Demme, Dustin Hoffman, Charles Burnett and Sherman Alexie.

[pro-bassoonist]

NEWS
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=15793

Milestone Films will add two new titles to its Blu-ray catalog: Edward S. Curtis' In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914) and Shirley Clarke's The Connection (1962). The two releases will be available for purchase on February 24th.

In the Land of the Head Hunters

Selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress Legendary photographer Edward S. Curtis devoted his life to documenting the world of Native Americans in firm belief that the information he gathered must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost. In 1914, he created one of the first feature length dramas ever made a masterpiece filmed with and starring members of the Kwakwaka wakw (Kwakiutl) tribe of British Columbia. Curtis haunting melodrama, set before Europeans arrived on the North Pacific Coast, tells the story of a warrior s spiritual journey, of love won and lost, and of a battle between tribes to save the warrior s bride. The film s attention to historic detail and Curtis legendary eye for composition make IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS one of the most beautiful films of the silent era and a stunning evocation of a culture famed for its incredible artistic heritage. Aspects of the film were based on he Kwakwaka wakw s oral traditions and it accurately portrays rituals, including the potlatch, which were strictly prohibited by Canadian law until 1951.

Special Features:

In the Land of the Head Hunters (Restoration of the 1914 version with original musical score, 66 mins, Tinted)
In the Land of the War Canoes (1973 version by Bill Holm & George Quimby, 44 mins, B&W)
The Image Maker and the Indians. Making-of documentary by Holm and Quimby (1979. Color, 16 mins.)
Turning Point Ensemble and the score (2013, Color, 3 mins.)
Optional English subtitles for the Kwak wala dialogue on the In the Land of the War Canoes soundtrack*
Documents of Encounter: The Head Hunters Reconstruction Project. (2014. Video, 38 mins.)*
Cultural Presentation by the Gwa wina Dancers. (2008. Color, 83 mins.)*
Commentary Track featuring Bill Holm, Andy Everson, and Aaron Glass, Edited by Keith Sanborn*
Still Gallery, courtesy of the University of Washington Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and Mick Gidley

**New bonus features produced by Aaron Glass, Brad Evans and the U mista Cultural Centre.

The Connection

A jazz quartet and sundry deadbeat friends hang out in a grungy New York City loft, waiting for their drug connection. They jam, argue, wax philosophical and ham it up for the benefit of a self-important documentary filmmaker and his cameraman. Shirley Clarke s debut feature The Connection magically transforms the ennui of their addiction into bold drama, set to an incredible score by Freddie Redd and featuring Jackie McLean s brilliant sax. A former dancer with a deep love for music, Clarke was born for the moving image. With The Connection, she created the ultimate jazz film a feature of such fluid artistry and bebop editing that the viewer never notices that the 110-minute movie was shot in one room. Camera, actors, and musicians riff constantly with and off each other to electrifying effect. Throughout her career, Clarke broke taboos (making films about junkies, ghetto teens, gay life and avant-garde jazz) and pushed the boundaries of film technique. She was an artist of such intense and innate individuality that there could only be one Shirley Clarke the most independent of all American independent filmmakers.

Special Features:

The Connection Home Movies (B&W, 6 mins.)
A Conversation with Albert Brenner by Ross Lipman (4 mins.)
Connecting with Freddie Redd (27 mins)
The Connection-Behind The Scenes
Photo Gallery
The Connection trailer Carl and Max at the Chelsea (Color home movie. 4 mins.)
1959 Radio Interview (29 mins.)
Two 1964 marketing songs: Who Killed Cock Robin and I m in Love

Pro-B

[Jobla]

I wish that Milestone would release a Blu-ray of the wonderful THE EXILES, which they released on DVD several years ago.

[pedromvu]

It appears the recent release of Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema Vol.1 is missing from the site, I mean specifically the Milestone release, the Polish release is there.

Is there a way for regular users to add it? or does that need to be done by someone who works at the site?

[pro-bassoonist]

Hi Pedro,

My understanding is that Milestone is only reselling a limited number of copies of the Polish edition. I don't believe they pressed U.S. discs specifically for the U.S. market.

Or am I wrong? If I am, I will be happy to add the release.

However, I received their press note, which has links to the box set, and they actually lead straight to the Polish listing.

Pro-B

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Hi Pedro,

My understanding is that Milestone is only reselling a limited number of copies of the Polish edition. I don't believe they pressed U.S. discs specifically for the U.S. market.

Or am I wrong? If I am, I will be happy to add the release.

However, I received their press note, which has links to the box set, and they actually lead straight to the Polish listing.

Pro-B

You are right, thanks, I just hadn't researched enough

[pro-bassoonist]

No problem, Pedro

[pro-bassoonist]

STREET DATE: APRIL 5.



NEWS/TRAILER
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=18656

At the time of her death from cancer in 1988, Kathleen Collins was just 46 years old, but she was already an internationally renowned playwright, a popular professor (at New York’s City College) and a successful independent filmmaker.

Her second film, Losing Ground tells the story of a marriage of two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives. Sara Rogers, a black professor of philosophy, is embarking on an intellectual quest to understand “ecstasy” just as her painter husband Victor sets off on a more earthy exploration of joy.
Celebrating a recent museum sale, Victor decides to rent a country house where he can return to more realism after years working as an abstract expressionist. Away from the city, the couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated by Sara’s research and by Victor’s involvement with a young model. When one of her students casts Sara as the woman scorned in a film version of the song “Frankie and Johnny,” she experiences a painful emotional awakening. While dealing with strong individuals and feelings, the film is also charming--Collins described it as a comedy about a young woman who takes herself too seriously.

One of the very first fictional features by an African-American woman, Losing Ground remains a stunning and powerful work of art. Accomplished actors Seret Scott (who appeared in Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby and Ntozake Shange’s play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf”), Bill Gunn (Ganja and Hess) and Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) star.

Funny, brilliant and personal, Losing Ground should have ranked high in the canon of indie cinema. But the early 1980s was not an easy time for women or independent filmmakers and the film was never theatrically released. It was shown once on PBS’s American Playhouse, and then it effectively disappeared. Twenty-five years after her mother’s death, Nina Collins rescued the original negative and created a beautiful new digital master of her mother’s film. Losing Ground now looks and sounds as fresh, bracing and complex as it did when it was first filmed. It is a testament to Kathleen Collins’ incredible talent and a lasting treasure of African American and women’s cinema.

Special Features:

- Commentary track by Professors LaMonda Horton-Stallings and Terri Francis
- 2015 Theatrical Trailer
- The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy (1980, 50 mins, Color) Kathleen Collins and Ronald Gray's first film
- Video Interviews with Ronald K. Gray (46:30), Seret Scott (40:17) and Nina Lorez Collins (26:24)
- An Interview with Kathleen Collins by Phyllis R. Klotman (1982, Color, 22 mins, Courtesy of Indiana University Black Film Archive)
- Transmagnifican Dambamuality (1976, 7 mins, B&W) Gray's celebrated lost student film

Pro-B

[Fabs]

Wish they would finally release Maborosi one day.

[MagnumM]

I purchsed this one-"I am Cuba/ It has Englis Subtitles for those who do not speak Russian or Spanish and the transfer is very good.

[

[MichaelR]

Originally Posted by MagnumM

I purchsed this one-"I am Cuba/ It has Englis Subtitles for those who do not speak Russian or Spanish and the transfer is very good.

That is a DVD set, not Blu-ray:

http://www.milestonefilms.com/produc...deluxe-edition

It is listed in the site's DVD database:

https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/I-Am-Cuba-DVD/57442/

[John_Drake]

Originally Posted by Fabs

Wish they would finally release Maborosi one day.

Yes, and The Exiles...

[Jobla]

I still think that THE EXILES is the best film yet released by Milestone. It's such a shame that the company wasn't utilizing the Blu-ray format at that time.

[John_Drake]

How true. I would also add Killer of Sheep to that as well.

[milefilms]

Martin Scorsese presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema Volume 3

http://milestonefilms.com/products/mart ... a-volume-3

Now available at http://www.milestone.film, Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Volume 3!



Dennis Doros
Milestone Film & Video
milefilms@gmail.com

[milefilms]

Two Astonishing Films by Pioneer Woman Director Lois Weber
Restored and Available NOW from Milestone!
SHOES and THE DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI
https://www.milestonefilms.com/colle...r-film-pioneer

SHOES

“Brilliant.”
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress

Lois Weber weaves a beautifully simple story of one shop girl’s struggles into a heartbreaking cinematic masterpiece. Filmed on the streets of Los Angeles — including a remarkable scene in Pershing Square and another in front of Woolworth’s on Broadway — Weber follows the daily travails of Eva Meyer, whose meager wages from her job at a five-and-dime store are the sole financial support for three younger sisters, a struggling mother, and a father who prefers beer and penny dreadfuls to work. When there is barely enough to cover the grocer’s bill, Eva is forced to patch the holes in the soles of her shoes with cardboard. But with each rainy day and every splinter, her plight becomes more painful, and finally intolerable. With no solution in sight, Eva is forced to consider other options.

The Shoes restoration by the EYE Filmmuseum combined a Dutch nitrate print and a 1930s “comedic” short reissue of the film found at the Library of Congress. Thanks to the recent discovery of the original script and intertitles in the 16mm microfilm files at NBC/Universal, the Milestone edition more closely reflects the original film. Prominent musicians and composers Donald Sosin and Mimi Rabson have created a mesmerizing and moving score.

Bonus Features:
Commentary track by Lois Weber biographer Shelley Stamp
1932 spoof Unshod Maiden
1971 audio interview of Mary MacLaren
Richard Koszarski on Unshod Maiden
Shoes: Before-and-after video
1911 short film, Lost Illusions written by and starring Weber


THE DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI

“Pavlova’s artistry is something that we are often asked to take on faith, something where you had to be there. Watching The Dumb Girl, you are there!”
— Joan Acocella, The New Yorker

The Dumb Girl of Portici has been long overdue for recognition as one of pioneer filmmaker Lois Weber’s finest creations and a landmark in women’s cinema. The blockbuster film was Universal’s most expensive to date and featured an enormous cast, large-scale sets, and an ambitious story.

For Weber, the film represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Anna Pavlova, the incomparable prima ballerina. Pavlova was appearing with the Boston Opera Company in D. F. E. Auber’s 1829 La Muette de Portici, portraying Fenella, a wordless fisher-girl living during the Spanish occupation of Naples in the mid-17th century who is seduced and abandoned by a Spanish nobleman. In the opera and in Weber’s stirring drama, the betrayal of Fenella and the oppression of her people inspire her brother to foment a revolution.

Sadly, over the years The Dumb Girl of Portici has fallen out of distribution. This restoration, with a dazzling new score by the acclaimed composer John Sweeney, offers audiences a chance to experience the energy, brilliance, and the talents of maestras Pavlova and Weber.

Bonus Features:
The Immortal Swan, 1935 feature documentary by Pavlova's partner Victor D’Andre with amazing footage of the great ballerina
Anna Pavlova in Newsreels
Anna Pavlova's own 9.5mm home movies!
Films of Anna Pavlova dancing her most famous roles

These two great rediscoveries are 20% off the retail price at http://www.milestonefilms.com

DVDs are $23.96
Blu-rays are $27.96

And the DVD of Lois Weber’s The Blot is just $10!

[Richard--W]

I would like to see Milestone reissue the two Schoedsack / Cooper documentaries, Grass and Chang. Amazing films.If not on bluray, even a DVD reissue would be welcome.

[bigshot]

I Am Cuba is the best thing they offer. Astounding film.

[Jobla]

I think that THE EXILES is their finest release, with superb supplements. How sad that it isn't available in Blu-ray.

[etimh]

Nice radio piece on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday today on Milestone’s release of Lois Weber’s films. Amy Heller and Dennis Doros of Milestone Films among those interviewed for the story.

Audio and print link:

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/05/68237...films-restored