WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery’s Summer Film Preservation Festival—From Vault to Screen: New Preservation from American Collections—highlights work recently completed by six of America’s major archival collections: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Museum of Modern Art. Many of the films feature screen legends such as Lillian Gish, Stan Laurel, Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Andy Griffith, Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Mary Pickford, John Wayne, and Douglas Fairbanks. Also included are early documentaries by Frank Capra and Jean Renoir’s classic The River.

Ranging from delicate experimental films and rare short subjects, to classics of the silent and early sound period, and landmark films of the 1950s, all are radiant reflections of the motion picture’s complex history as an art form and the collaborative process essential to protecting, preserving, and restoring rare and unusual motion picture collections. Two of the screenings, Pather Panchali and Summertime, mark the fiftieth anniversary of the making of these influential works. All screenings are in the cool comfort of the East Building Auditorium, which offers stadium-style seating and a state-of the-art wide screen. Several films have live musical accompaniment.