Ed Lorusso restores silent films and has produced more than 30 silent film projects, including many films shot in Maine. Six of his projects have been broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. He lives in Belgrade.

I recently found a lost film in the Library of Congress. It was lost because it had been cataloged under the wrong title many decades ago. Hiding in plain sight. The film was “In the River,” one that Edgar Jones made in the Augusta area in 1920. It’s one of 30 Jones films made in the area. It was cataloged as “Into the Current” because the opening credits were lost except for one frame of film. That frame gave us the title.

In most cases when a silent film is found these days it makes a splash in the news, even if it’s not complete. When “The Heart of Lincoln” (1915), “The Pill Pounder “(1923) and “The First Degree” (1923) were found in recent years, the news spread among the silent film “community” but also made national news via TV and social media outlets.

When I tried to place press releases about finding “In the River,” I was greeted by crickets. I was told it was too “regional” or “of local interest” or because it was a two-reel film (not a feature-length film) it was of no interest. I beg to differ.

The Kennebec Journal did run an article about the screening at the Colonial. That was it. Over the last decade I have been privileged to work on many silent films and to screen some of them at various venues in Augusta and Gardiner. Chief among these films are the two-reel films that Edgar Jones shot in the Augusta area between 1919 and 1921.

During Jones’ Augusta years, Hollywood was not yet the epicenter of filmmaking. Large studios existed in big cities like New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia but also in smaller cities like Fort Lee, New Jersey, Ithaca, New York, Providence, Rhode Island, Jacksonville, Florida … the list goes on. The great majority of films during these years were made at these “regional” film centers.

In Augusta, Jones set up a film studio with a stock company of actors and movie crew and they all lived together at 129 Sewall St. He even built a barn that doubled as an indoor studio where they filmed and edited the films, and there was also an outdoor set in Gannet Woods.

The Jones’ “North Woods” films had huge appeal locally (articles of the day in the Kennebec Journal note that these films usually played to SRO audiences at the Colonial Theater). But they were also shown across the United States, Canada and overseas. They were shown through the end of the silent era and into the 1930s, more than a decade after they were made.

After the movies settled in Hollywood and talkies swept the industry in the late 1920s the Maine films disappeared (as did almost all silent films). Some found their way into various film archives and private collections waiting to be rediscovered. Six of the Jones films have been found and rediscovered by a new era of audiences.

When I confirmed that what I had found (with the help of Library of Congress staff) was
indeed a lost Edgar Jones film, I immediately set up a local showing with the enthusiastic support of Cathy Milojevic-Kaey and Kathi Wall of the Augusta Colonial Theater and we screened the film at the Colonial on Oct. 4 with live music from noted silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

Watching audiences watch these films, I see the wistful looks on the faces of the senior citizens as they remember simpler days or maybe their grandparents. And as the images of old Maine flicker across the screen, the entire audience, regardless of age or connections to Maine, is transported away from today’s divisive troubles and raging headlines to happier times and a simpler way of life.

And it’s quite wonderful to sit in the massive old Colonial Theater, where all the Jones
films made their premieres over 100 years ago, and to be transported to that time when
Edgar Jones made movies in Augusta and the whole world was watching.

Note: since finding “In the River,” I’ve also found “Three and a Girl” (1920), which we’ll be showing in August.