ROME — Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna, the prominent film archives known globally as a prime film preservation entity, has announced a multiyear project in tandem with New York-based Cohen Media Group to restore all of Buster Keaton‘s silent films.
The first restorations from the Keaton Project, which intends to prompt a global rediscovery of Buster Keaton’s genius, will be the 1920 short comedy “One Week,” the first film release Keaton made on his own, and also 1924’s “Sherlock Jr.,” the third feature-length film that Keaton made as an independent. They will screen during the upcoming (June 27-July 4) edition of Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival dedicated to revival and retrospective programming, launched and promoted by the Bologna archives and Cohen Film Collection.
Cineteca di Bologna previously dedicated over a decade to the restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s entire oeuvre.
The Bologna film archives run the L’Immagine Ritrovata film restoration lab, whose work is eagerly commissioned by major movie classics players in Europe, such as Pathe and Studiocanal. Their archives hold a total of more than 18,000 titles.
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