RescueFest, Premier Festival for Restoring Lost Indies, to Open 2024 Edition with ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’

An absolute feast of cinematic rarities awaits film lovers at the 2024 RescueFest, running December 6-9 at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, with additional screenings at the Academy Museum December 13-14. Put on by IndieCollect, which locates and restores seemingly lost or otherwise unavailable movies (at least unavailable in a high-quality format), the 2024 edition of RescueFest is opening with an absolute treat you can’t stream anywhere: John Bailey’s “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” written by Jane Wagner, and starring Lily Tomlin. The restoration, which the IndieCollect team is racing to complete in time for the December 6 premiere because of the need to match different prints of the film that are of different lengths, will finally put the full 117-minute version on display, as supervised and approved by Tomlin herself.

Jane Fonda will introduce the screening and conduct the post-screening Q&A with Tomlin and Wagner, paying tribute to the Academy Film Archive team that found the missing negative. Academy Film Archive curator Ed Carter, one of those who was unfortunately just laid off from the Archive, found a negative for a 108-minute cut of the film in a Deluxe Lab warehouse where it was to be “de-accessioned.” That 108-minute cut was fully restored, but now, restoration expert Peter Conheim, IndieCollect’s director of restoration services Cameron Haffner and colorist Ciara Kain are cutting in missing elements from the 117-minute cut of the film and restoring these elements to match the quality of the 108-minute version. They’ll be working on this until the screening itself.

Other highlights of the festival include the West Coast premiere of “Northern Lights,” the 1978 Cannes Camera D’or winner about a labor dispute in North Dakota; the director’s cut of William Greaves’ “Nationtime,” the only film made about the 1972 National Black Political Convention; the Jane Fonda-produced and -starring “F.T.A.,” followed by a Q&A with Fonda; Mario Van Peebles presenting his father Melvin Van Peebles’ “The Story of a Three-Day Pass”; and Ann Hu’s “Shadow Magic,” starring Jared Harris and Xia Yu.

Chaz Ebert, Winnie Holzman, Rosalind Chao, and Gregory Nava will be among the speakers, with Ted Hope giving the keynote at the “Reel Resistance” Roundtable on December 8.

IFP founder Sandra Schulberg founded IndieCollect to focus on the preservation of indie films made from 1950 to 2000, which had often not been a priority for film preservation efforts because of assumptions that films from that time were in less need of salvage. “Indie films reflect a multi-faceted America, a fantastic jigsaw puzzle,” Schulberg said. “But one film after another is falling into oblivion. Our archive colleagues share our concern, but they don’t have the resources to rescue all this work and neither do we. It’s time to unite and take a stand.”

Here’s the full schedule.

RESCUE FEST Film Descriptions & Schedule

Laemmle Monica Film Center – December 6 to 9, 2024

www.laemmle.com/theater/monica-film-center

General Admission $16. Student Tickets $7 (only at box office)

12/6 — 6:30 p.m.

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, written by Jane Wagner for Lily Tomlin, directed by John Bailey (1985, 117’)

A “philosopher for primetime” (per The New York Times), comedienne Lily Tomlin slyly comments on the women’s liberation movement and American society at large, speaking through Trudy, her bag lady savant. ** Jane Fonda conducts Q&A with Lily Tomlin & Jane Wagner. Their presence will make this a night to remember. (Tickets only at IndieCollect.org)

12/7 — 11:00 a.m.

Nationtime by William Greaves (1972, 80’) via Kino Lorber

Lost for nearly 50 years, Nationtime takes you inside the 1972 National Black Political Convention — a must-see for everyone interested in the history of Black Power in America — and features Amiri Baraka, Dick Gregory, Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Bobby Seale, Betty Shabazz and Harry Belafonte, with narration by Sidney Poitier. ** Q&A with David Greaves, who shot the film with his father.

12/7 — 1:45 p.m.

F.T.A., produced by and starring Jane Fonda, directed by Francine Parker (1972, 97’) via Kino Lorber

In 1972, at the height of the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Holly Near and fellow artists entertained 60,000 troops with a musical revue called “Free The Army.” Dissidents joked that the “F” stood for something else. ** David Zeiger conducts Q&A with Jane Fonda.

12/7 — 5:00 p.m.

Tokyo Pop by Fran Kuzui (1988, 99’) via Kino Lorber

Disillusioned with New York’s punk scene, bleached blond rocker Wendy (Carrie Hamilton) hops a plane to Tokyo with dreams of making it big. Hamilton’s enthralling performance augured a major career, but she died of cancer soon after making this movie. Restored with support of the Carrie Hamilton Foundation and Dolly Parton.** Intro by archivist Ed Carter.

12/7 — 7:30 p.m.

Thousand Pieces of Gold by Nancy Kelly, starring Rosalind Chao & Chris Cooper (1991, 105’) via Kino Lorber

Rosalind Chao plays a Chinese woman sold into sexual slavery and Chris Cooper, the saloon owner who buys her freedom — both magnificent. Kelly’s directorial debut was lauded as a “triumph [of] classic Western filmmaking,” comparing her to John Ford, but she was never offered another movie to direct. This touching film resonates more deeply since #MeToo and #TimesUp and amidst the current xenophobia. ** Q&A with Nancy Kelly, Rosalind Chao (Three Body Problem), Michael Paul Chan, Kenji Yamamoto, and DP Bobby Bukowski.

12/8 — 2:30 p.m.

Northern Lights by John Hanson & Rob Nilsson (1978, 98’) via Kino Lorber

After it won the 1979 Cannes Festival Camera d’Or, critics worldwide hailed Northern Lights as an indie cinema classic. In luminous B&W, it dramatizes the battle between small wheat farmers and big-city grain merchants who were pushing them into bankruptcy. Their grassroots party caught fire and won the North Dakota elections of 1916—at a cost. In the words of lead organizer Ray Sorenson, “You struggle for a good life, but you never get to live it.” •• Q&A with Rob Nilsson, Susan Lynch & Joe Spano.

12/8 — 5:00 p.m.

The Story of a Three Day Pass by Melvin Van Peebles (1968, 87’) via Criterion Collection/Janus Films

A Black American soldier (Harry Baird) wins a promotion and a 3-day leave, but his weekend idyl with a lovely Parisian (Nicole Berger of Shoot the Piano Player) turns bitter as people react to the biracial couple. Like so many Black artists, Melvin Van Peebles exiled himself to Europe to write and direct, but he found racism there too. ** Introduction by Mario Van Peebles.

12/8 — 7:30 p.m.

Thank You and Goodnight by Jan Oxenberg (1991, 83’) via Criterion Collection/Janus Films

Portraying herself as a cartoon cardboard cutout that smiles or scowls, Jan Oxenberg wryly poses the ultimate questions of life and death in this genre-bending comedy that won acclaim from critics across America, including rave review by Richard Brody in The New Yorker. ** Winnie Holzman (Wicked) conducts Q&A with Jan Oxenberg.

12/9 — 5:00 p.m.

The Atomic Cafe, by Jayne Loader, Kevin & Pierce Rafferty (1982, 86’) via Kino Lorber

Knitting together unintentionally hilarious U.S. government films on how to prepare for a nuclear bomb, this cheeky meditation on Armageddon was named to the National Film Registry in 2011 and remains a masterpiece. ** Peter Conheim conducts Q&A with Jayne Loader.

12/9 — 7:30 p.m.

Shadow Magic by Ann Hu, starring Jared Harris (2000, 116’) via Sony Pictures Classics

Set in China in the 1900s and based on a true story, Ann Hu’s valentine to the birth of cinema stars Jared Harris as an itinerant motion picture exhibitor and Xia Yu as a young still photographer who becomes entranced with the moving image. They are invited to present their “shadow magic” at the Imperial Palace, but with devastating consequences when their films catch fire. ** Video intro by Jared Harri. Q&A with Ann Hu & DP Nancy Schreiber.

Academy Museum — Ted Mann Theater — December 13 & 14, 2024

12/13 – 7:00 p.m.

Solomon Northup’s Odyssey by Gordon Parks (1984, 114’)

Solomon Northup’s Odyssey predated Steve McQueen’s movie, 12 Years a Slave, by 30 years and equals its narrative power. Based on Northup’s 1853 memoir, it is the true story of a free black man who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. The movie was co-financed and broadcast by American Playhouse on PBS. It then lay dormant in the DuArt Lab vault until the negative was identified decades later by Warrington Hudlin. The Golden Globe Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Roger & Chaz Ebert Foundation supported IndieCollect’s restoration. ** Dialogue with Mario Van Peebles, DP Hiro Narita and IndieCollect’s Eva Yuma, conducted by Ford Foundation’s Jon-Sesrie Goff.

12/14 — 2:30 p.m.

Hairstory by LaTanya Richardson Jackson (2000, 30’)

Set on Mother’s Day, Hairstory depicts a mother determined to impose her idea of beauty on her daughter, and woe to anyone who stands in her way. The young girl’s rebellion threatens to break their bond. This is a funny and heart-warming story about respect and forgiveness — and, yes, hair!

A Question of Color by Kathe Sandler (1993, 57’)

This was the first documentary to confront colorism in the Black community, a long-taboo subject. Sandler illuminates a caste system based on how closely skin color, hair texture and facial features conformed to a European ideal and shows how this was a legacy of sexual subjugation of Black women by slave owners and the preferential treatment their mixed-race children received.

** Maya Cade in conversation with LaTanya Jackson & Kathe Sandler.