It's All True: undeveloped footage

[tony]

I was reading an article by Catherine Benamou, who is an expert on "It's All True", and she claims that there is 68,145 feet of film of "My Friend Bonito", 32,000 feet of black and white and 3,000 feet of technicolour of "Carnival" and 48,500 feet of black and white film of "Jangadeiros" being housed at UCLA!!!!! Much of this is undeveloped, all of it is at risk of decompostion, none of it is being preserved ( although I heard there are plans afoot to preserve the "Bonoto" footage.)

Can you believe it? I thought the "It's All True" documentary used ALL the footage found in 1985, but apparently not, and Benamou should know, since she was one of the advisors on that doc. But preserving cost a lot of money, apparently; too bad Bill Gates isn't an OW fan!

Tony

[Jeff Wilson]

You can look in the UCLA archive listings and find all the Welles footage they hold. It's too bad it's just sitting there, but it's obviously a money-losing proposition to most, and there aren't any wealthy benefactors who want to preserve an unfinished film.

[ToddBaesen]

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What was the article where you reading by Catherine Benamou?

It really is a shame UCLA couldn't at least process and preserve the Technicolor footage of carnival. The few glimpses we get to see of it in the IT'S ALL TRUE documentary are so dazzling! You could issue that on it's own and it would be interesting. It would be nice if they re-do the documentary for a DVD release, using the restored BONITA footage, and new music for the Jangadeiros episode.

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[Harvey Chartrand]

Has anyone approached the Brazilian government about this?
Perhaps the Ministry of Culture might be interested in taking over the restoration of whatever remains of It's All True before the film turns to powder — or at least preserve the historic Rio Carnival footage. If anyone on the board understands Portuguese, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture is at http://www.cultura.gov.br/ Perhaps some cultural mandarin in Rio de Janeiro or Brasilia might decide that a substantial amount of cruzeiros should be allocated to this cinematic rescue operation.
Not a word of this to Beatrice, though!

[maxrael]

from the Rosenbaum article 'Fables of the Reconstruction '

found at: http://www.chireader.com/movies/archives/1999/1199/991126.html

I love that phrase "while he was on vacation." So much for the months Welles spent organizing and directing It's All True in Latin America, portions of which are now in danger of being lost forever because no one's interested in raising money to preserve the footage. This was one of the many topics addressed at a four-day conference in Munich in late October on Welles's unfinished films, which I attended along with Welles scholars from eight countries and two of Welles's major collaborators, Oja Kodar and Gary Graver. There was also a lot of discussion about the restorations or completions of, among other films, Don Quixote, The Other Side of the Wind, The Deep, and The Magic Show; recent restorations of previously unseen television films made by Welles in the 50s and 60s were also shown and evaluated. The American press, film magazines included, showed no interest in this event, though it has shown a great deal of interest in all the bogus spinoffs—perhaps because only the spin-offs are capable of lining the pockets of American suits. (Fleming also notes that RKO is considering a stage musical based on Citizen Kane and developing an early unrealized Welles script, The Way to Santiago.) Over the years I've come to believe that any CEO or journalist who refers to Welles as "Orson" is automatically untrustworthy. Fleming's story about the new The Magnificent Ambersons is headlined "Orson's revenge"—reflecting some ludicrous fantasy that a four-hour miniseries based on the script of Welles's mutilated masterpiece should somehow garner his posthumous approval.

i wonder if the BBC would be interested in purchasing/preserving...

atb,
max!

[jaime marzol]

............

the few moments of color carvival footage used in IT'S ALL TRUE documentary is the most exciting use of color i have ever seen anywhere. even surpasses michael powell, who i consider a master at using color.

ucla film archives, to license footage they restore they charge a few thousand dollars per minute. it should not be a losing proposition for them. maybe it's on their to-do stack. we certainly hope it is.

[tony]

Todd:
The Catherine Banamou article is found at the Its All True 2002 Film Festival site; the url is:

http://www.itsalltrue.com.br/2002/e_index.html

1. first, you click on the url; you will see a photo of a man screaming
2. click on "International Retrospective" in the column on the left
3. You will now arrive at a page with a photo of Welles; click on this title beside his photo: "It's All True: An Event Remembered, An Unfinished Film"
4. You will now arrive at the Benamou article

She really knows her stuff.

[Jeff Wilson]

Benamou was writing a book on the film, last I heard, but I haven't heard anything since. She teaches nearby at the University of Michigan, and she taught a class on Welles back in '98, I think, which included screening most of his films at an Ann Arbor theater, which is how I saw Filming Othello, Fountain of Youth, Chimes, and several other rare items on the big screen, as well as the Spanish Arkadin footage, which was brought by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Would have certainly been interesting to hear her class lectures, I'd think.

[tony]

Just watched Sganzerla's doc. "All is Brazil"; one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. I've got a Brazilian friend, so I'm going to show it to her, and get her reaction. If SHE thinks it's bizarre, then my bet is this isn't cultural differences, but rather Sganzerla is insane. Jeff's "non-linear" is an understatement, and this director has made a TRILOGY on the subject of Welles in Brazil (Jesus...the pain.)

Interesting thing, though: there's a page of the script for IAT in the doc; is my memory going? I don't remember this being reproduced elsewhere (I didn't think there WAS a script).

Also, there's a really rare pic of OW in Brazil with a beard. OW seems to still be remembered, as we can see by the festival being named after IAT; I wonder how many average Brazilians know the story? I'll grill my friend!

[jaime marzol]

...................

when the 1991 It's All True came out, i asked a Brazilian friend about it. If she had been taught about the god neighbor policy thing during WW2, welles trying to make a film to bring attention to the situation the jungadieros were in, Jacare, etc., etc., in history class, and her reply really surprised me. She said only the people that were around to experience these events would know about it. every new regime that comes into power does not care about anything that happened under the old regine, so in school, she was not taught anything that had to do with brazilian history.

she wanted to see the documentary. i loaned it to her. she said watching it was a very emotional experience. she said her childhood was very much like what she saw in the documentary, and that all the information of historic significance in it, was new to her. she lived in brazil till she was 22.

of course, i did not poll 199 other brazilians, so this information though interesting, can not be considered difinitive in any way.

(resisted the urge to write 'pole' instead of 'poll')

[colwood]

After seeing this thread, finally got around to seeing It's All True and I have to say I have a new and much greater appreciation having seen it again. It is magnificent footage, all the more so when you consider the conditions he was working under. It's ashame that there is still footage that has gone unpreserved. I thought that all known footage would have found a way into the doc. Here's too hoping that much like other Welles unifinished projects, that someone can step in a rescue it.

[L French]

With It's All True coming out on DVD on Tuesday, here's the telegram that started it all...

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, John Hay Whitney, the director of the office for the coordination of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) sent this telegram to Orson Welles.



December 20, 1941

DEAR ORSON:

WE UNDERSTAND YOU ARE WILLING AND MAY BE ABLE TO UNDER TAKE TRIP TO BRAZIL WHERE YOU WOULD PRODUCE MOTION PICTURES IN COOPERATION WITH BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT. IF THIS CAN BE ARRANGED IT WILL BE ENORMOUSLY HELPFUL TO THE PROGRAM OF THIS OFFICE AND ENERGETICALLY SUPPORTED BY IT. WE HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED EXPRESSIONS ENTHUSIASTIC APPROVAL FROM RIO. PERSONALLY BELIEVE YOU WOULD MAKE GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO HEMISPHERIC SOLIDARITY WITH THIS PROJECT.

REGARDS,
JOHN HAY WHITNEY




ORSON WELLES STATEMENTS:
January, 1942

We have pretty well in mind what we are going to do in Brazil. And we also know that we are going on from there to other Latin American countries. My definite plan is to attempt a movie for all the people of all the Americas. It will be a polyglot movie, by which I mean we are designing it to be completely understandable, no matter what the language of the audience. Some of it will be silent, part will be in color, but we intend to make it so that it can play in its original state in all of the Americas.

THE LADY ESTHER RADIO SHOW:
February, 2 1942

This is the last time for some while I'll be speaking to you from the United States. Tomorrow night the Mercury Theater starts for South America. The reason, put more or less, officially, is that I've been asked by the office of the coordinator of Inter-American affairs to do a motion picture especially for Americans in all the Americas, a movie which, in its particular way, might strengthen the good relations now binding the continents of the Western Hemisphere. Put much less officially, the Mercury's going down there to get acquainted. We the people of these United Nations of America now stand together: We're going to have to know each other better than we do. My job--the Mercury's job--is to help with the introductions. And now it's time for good byes. As always, we remain obediently yours.

[Glenn Anders]

In the history of motion picture art, Welles' statements are brave, generous and tragic.

Thanks, Larry, for posting this material.

Do you know what will be featured on the DVD of IT'S ALL TRUE?

Will it be a copy of the Laserdisc (a copy of which I had before it stolen) or will there be new features?

Does anyone know?

Glenn

[Wilson]

The DVD has no extras of any kind, but it is reasonably priced, which makes up for it in some small way. I will have a brief look at the disc on the site tonight or tomorrow.

[colwood]

Don't know if it will be an exact copy of the laserdisc print, but a advanced review I found via google states there will be no extras.