{"id":44183,"date":"2026-04-13T18:57:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=44183"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:57:44","slug":"how-french-cinema-pioneers-lost-1897-film-was-found-in-a-us-family-heirloom-trunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=44183","title":{"rendered":"How French cinema pioneer\u2019s lost 1897 film was found in a US family heirloom trunk"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The battered wooden trunk had been in the family for a century \u2013 shifted from attic to barn to garage as it was handed down through the generations. No one knew a cinematic treasure was inside.<\/p>\n

That was until retired American teacher Bill McFarland\u2019s curiosity got the better of him.<\/p>\n

For the past 20 years, McFarland, 76, has been the keeper of the trunk, which originally belonged to his late great-grandfather who showed silent films to audiences in rural Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just this trunk of films that seemed too good to throw away,\u201d McFarland says. \u201cBut I had no idea what they were or how to show them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Bill<\/div>
Bill McFarland holds his great-grandfather William DeLyle Frisbee\u2019s magic lantern slide projector at his home in Jenison, in the US state of Michigan, in March 2026. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He offered them to museums and even tried to sell them through an antique store, whose owner soon told him to take them away after learning vintage nitrate film reels were highly combustible and could explode.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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