****************************************************** * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * ****************************************************** Please note, after a brief introduction by Shusha Guppy this film will begin promptly at 7.00pm. POCKETSCREENING People of the Wind (1976, 47 mins. Director, Anthony Howarth) Q&A with Mike Dodds (cinematographer) and Richard Tapper (SOAS). Introduced by ShushaGuppy. A ‘lost’ film restored by Milestone Film & Video and TapeHouse, NYC. Academy Award® Nominee: Best Documentary Golden Globe Nominee: Best Documentary Tuesday, March 7th, 7.00pm Venue: J Z Young Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, Gower Street (University College London) WC1N Further info about all the films, bookings and directions: www.pocketvisions.co.uk There are two hundred miles of raging rivers and dangerous mountains to cross. There are no towns, no roads, no bridges. There is no turning back. The Bakhtiari migration is one of the most hazardous tests of human endurance known to mankind. Every year, 500,000 men, women and children - along with one million animals - struggle for eight grueling weeks to scale the massive Zagros Mountains in Iran - a range which is as high as the Alps and as broad as Switzerland - to reach their summer pastures. The film’s astonishing widescreen photography and brilliantly recorded soundtrack take the viewer out onto the dangerous precipices of the Zardeh Kuh mountain and into the icy waters of the Cholbar River. Narrator: James Mason Director: Anthony Howarth Executive Producer: Elizabeth R. Rogers Producers: Anthony Howarth & David Koff Script: David Koff Editor: Carolyn Hicks Cinematographer: Mike Dodds Sound: Ivan Sharrock Music: G. T. Moore and Shusha Guppy Production company: Carolyn Films Year of production: 1976 Length in minutes: 110 The Restoration In 1990, Milestone Film & Video acquired and restored the classic silent film, Grass. When it was released on video, Grass became one of the company’s best-selling titles and was voted one of the ten best releasesof the year by the New York Times and Video Magazine. At the time, many of the buyers of Grass asked us about a 1976 color re-make of the film, People of the Wind. They described it as a “lost” film and remembered it vividly.It was hard to believe that a film only fifteen years old could be lost, but it seemed to be. Thus began our search for the rights, materials and owner of People of the Wind, an on-and-off quest for that took many twists and turns over the next few years. Just for fun, we looked up reviews of People of the Wind in the New York Public Library’s Performing Arts division. There was a small story in the New York Times by Vincent Canby which mentioned that a wealthy heiress from the “Chicago Bridge and Iron trust,” Elizabeth Rogers, had financed the film. Images of old money and eccentric widows filled our minds and we placed phone calls to every Elizabeth Rogers in the Chicago phonebook to no avail. We asked friends and colleagues at newspapers around the country to search their records for any obituary of Ms. Rogers. Still nothing. Then, by chance, we found a press kit for the film at a flea market for 25¢. It was a bargain, because in it we found the credit: “Color by Deluxe.” One phone call to the owner of Deluxe, Bud Stone, was sufficient. Indeed, the internegative, optical soundtracks and subtitle bands were still held by the lab. But there was another catch. Their records showed that the material was being held for Crown International, a long-time Hollywood producer of B-movies. It seemed odd that such a company would hold the rights for a 1976 documentary on the Bakhtiari. A phone call to Scott Schwimer, senior vicepresident at Crown, proved to be a highlight of our search. He told us that he wasn’t aware of People of the Wind, butthat it could have been from an earlier regime. He asked, “Who stars in thefilm so I can check my database?” Our reply, “Bakhtiari nomads from the southof Iran,” brought gales of laughter. Schwimer agreed that Deluxe’s records must be mistaken and sent out a letter that day releasing any claim by Crown on the material. It was an unusually kind and generous gesture that gave our search new momentum. So we had located the original materials, but we still needed to find out who owned the rights to the film. Deluxe explained that in these cases, permission from the producers credited on the film would suffice. Our search then turned to the producers: David Koff and Anthony Howarth. Pam Wintel of the Smithsonian’s Human Studies Film Archive, suggested that Mr. Koff might be living in Los Angeles. Luckily, not only was there a David Koff in the Los Angeles phone book, but it turned out to be the very man we sought! At first, Mr. Koff was a bit surprised by our inquiry, but volunteered his permission for our planned restoration and release of People of the Wind. He explained that we should contact Anthony Howarth and Carolyn Hicks (it seemed they had met editing People of the Wind and were still together). He did not know where they could be found, but suggested they might be somewhere in England. But first, he told us, we need to get permission from Ms. Rogers. When we suggested that she must be old or perhaps dead, we again elicited gales of laughter. Ms. Rogers, who was in her twenties when she produced the film, was a mother of four and quite alive. But again, he had no idea where she might be. He suggested contacting her old friends, authors Michael Arlen and Peter Matthiessen, and told us that she had a summerhouse on Captiva Island. Although nothing showed up in our search of Captiva and we couldn’t get hold of Michael Arlen, we had had previous contact with Mr. Matthiessen when we released The Young One, a film based on one of his short stories. So we wrote to him, but he replied he hadn’t seen Ms. Rogers for years. So we went back to an earlier clue: Ms. Rogers’ connection with ChicagoBridge and Iron. Sure enough, a phone call to David Koff reminded him that she did have a lawyer representing her and the trust: a Chester W. Nosal of Winston & Strawn. We left a message for Mr. Nosal and then waited for days without answer, our hopes fading. But the next week a very suspicious assistant of Mr. Nosal returned our call. After we explained that we were a distributor who wanted to contract for the rights for People of the Wind, Mr. Nosal got on the line and gave us the long-sought-after phone number for Elizabeth Rogers. It had take almost five years of searching, but at last our quest was almost over. We called the very much alive Ms. Rogers and she immediately met us with kindness and enthusiasm. We told her of our long quest and at the mention of Peter Matthiessen, she was surprised after all, she saw him every Sunday at his Buddhist ashram. This time, the laughter came from our end of the line. We quickly negotiated and signed an agreement for Milestone to release People of the Wind. Ms. Rogers then helped us get in contact with Anthony Howarth’s friend and agent, Woodfin Camp, who led us to the elusive Mr. Howarth himself! Next came the hard part. Deluxe kindly sent over the People of the Wind materials to John Allen’s restoration lab, Cinema Arts. The first inspection report was disturbing the rolls of film totaled only 110 minutes seventeen minutes short of the original running time. We contacted Howarth, Koff and Rogers and were enlightened. The film had been made on deadline and Howarth had never been entirely happy with the 127-minute version. He felt that it dragged in places and the co-producers and critics agreed. They went back and re-edited, creating a 110-minute version which all agreed was superior. Strangely enough, only one print of the new shorter film was struck (for Howarth’s personal use) and the new version seems never to have shown elsewhere. Back at Cinema Arts the materials were inspected and declared in good condition. But unfortunately, the optical tracks were mono and were vastly inferior to the $200,000 surround-sound stereo that had been made for the film. Luckily, Ms. Rogers still had everything from the production over nineteen boxes of soundtracks, out-takes, and various odds and ends to pour through. In Box Numbers 7A and 7B we discovered the original 35mm full-coat soundtracks! All these materials were sent to the Tape House Editorial Company, the premiere film-to-tape lab in the country. We had decided that People of the Wind, an Oscar® and Golden Globe nominee for Best Documentary, deserved the best treatment possible. With the extremely kind cooperation of Mark Polyocan and Tim Spitzer of Tape House, the film was transferred to High Definition using the Spirit. Colorist Ron Stetler did a masterful transfer the colors popped off the screen and the film never looked better. But when the sound for the third reel was being laid down, another disaster struck. Halfway through the reel, the full-coat 35mm mag tracks turned into optical negative. Even more mysteriously, it wasn’teven from the same film! So we had to make a print of the optical track for the third reel from the original negative. We then sent the print to TrackWise in New York where they created a DAT transfer for the video master. We encountered more trouble when the technicians at TrackWise discovered that the film used a Dolby DBX application that no longer exists and the DAT would not be properly encoded. In desperation, we called the Hollywood headquarters of Todd A-O, the original producers of the soundtrack. Fortunately, they still had the DBX card that would properly encode the sound master and they generously sent it overnight to their New York branch to get the transfer done quickly. Todd A-O even volunteered that they had back-up sound masters to the original film! Unfortunately, these proved to be in mono (made for the 16mm release) and were for the older, longer version. However, the company sent them on to Milestone for preservation. At last, with everything finally in place, Tape House transferred People of the Wind to High-Definition video using the restored soundtrack and original 35mm negative. This breathtaking film is now ready to be seen once again and it only took us nine years! In the second half of 1999, a new 35mm print will be struck and preservation materials will be made on thefilm. Patrick Hazard Department of Anthropology University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT This message, including any attachments, is confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and do not disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it. It is believed, but not warranted, that this e-mail, including any attachments, is virus free. 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