Product Details
- SKU: MILE00148
- Format: DVD
- UPC: 784148014845
- Street Date: 10/17/17
- PreBook Date: 09/12/17
- Label: Milestone Films »
- Genre: Documentary
- Run Time: 35 mins
- Number of Discs: 2
- Audio: STEREO
- Year of Production: 2015
- Region Code: 0
- Box Lot: 30
- Territory: US
- Language: English
Cast & Crew
- Director: Marc J. Perez
Product Assets
Champion, The: A Story Of America's First Film Town
- List Price: $34.95
- Your Price: $34.95
- In Stock: []
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When Mark Dintenfass arrived in Fort Lee in 1910, the sleepy New Jersey town just a ferry ride away from Manhattan was already a favorite location for nickelodeon-era filmmakers. Why not, he reasoned, build a studio and save on the expense and hassle of travel across the Hudson? Purchasing land and a building in nearby Englewood Cliffs, Dintenfass founded the Champion Studios, where he produced silent westerns and Civil War epics. Others followed, and soon there were movie studios all over Fort Lee. Sadly, the land rush proved to be a bubble that burst when the American film industry moved west to Hollywood. Based on Richard Koszarski's book, Fort Lee, the Film Town, The Champion tells the story of that brief golden age and of a modern-day fight to save the era's last remaining studio -- reminding us that the preservation of cinema history involves more than just the restoration of the films themselves. This deluxe 2-disc DVD set includes a new 2K restoration of Ghost Town (1935) an astonishing and haunting amateur documentary about post-cinema Fort Lee. Disc 1 also features five films made at Champion Studios -- thanks to the efforts of the Library of Congress and the Fort Lee Film Commission. Disc 2 includes exciting NJ film rediscoveries -- a slapstick comedy from director Mack Sennett, a "melodramatic comedy" starring Madge Kennedy, and the earliest surviving film version of Robin Hood!