Just in time for the Oscars.
A coveted long-lost silent film about President Abraham Lincoln was recently discovered on Long Island’s North Fork, all thanks to an intern who dug through rusty old reels.
The 65-minute, 1915 flick, “The Heart of Lincoln,” was found deeply tucked away at the Historic Films Archive in Greenport by film student Dan Martin, a 26-year-old from Jamesport.
Martin, tasked with sifting through tons of gunked film cans, first thought the title was just a “kind of dry” old educational one.
Only after playing the flick did he recognize the director and actor Francis Ford, the older brother and mentor to Academy Award winner John Ford of “The Grapes of Wrath” fame.
“The [Ford] brothers were almost obsessed with Lincoln as this emancipating messiah figure in American history,” Martin told Newsday.
“This was like a missing puzzle piece to the whole myth around these guys.”
Until recently, the Library of Congress listed “The Heart of Lincoln” as a lost silent film.
The archive’s manager, Joe Lauro, has since digitalized the film into 4K quality and stored it in a more properly labeled can. He plans to donate the lost piece to the Library of Congress.
As for Martin, a massive fan of the Ford brothers, he said this was “pretty much the coolest thing” that could happen for a guy like him.
“For someone going to school for film preservation, this is about the most rewarding outcome you can have sifting through those old film cans,” he told NBC New York.
