Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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Moana
(1926)
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Director/cameraman Robert J. Flaherty and wife Frances Hubbard Flaherty produced this feature-length documentary Moana (1926) on the Samoan people.
Decades later, daughter Monica Flaherty spearheaded a project to preserve the film and to produce a synchronized soundtrack to accompany the film.
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 Kino Classics
2015 Blu-ray Disc edition
Moana (1926), black & white, 98 minutes, not rated, with Twenty-Four-Dollar Island (1927), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, K1808, UPC 7-38329-18082-9.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 35.0 Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 mono sound encoded at 1.5 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 8 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 8 December 2015.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from archival 35mm print elements.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack of ambient sound, songs, spoken dialogue and sound effects — all recorded in the Samoan islands. While we do not (usually) advocate this kind of post-synchronization of sound to silent films, the results here are well-produced and give a heightened sense of place to the viewing experience.
This Blu-ray Disc edition of Moana is highly recommended.
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This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .
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 Kino Classics
2015 DVD edition
Moana (1926), black & white, 98 minutes, not rated, with Twenty-Four-Dollar Island (1927), black & white, 10 minutes, not rated.
Kino Lorber, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $24.95.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition has been mastered from archival 35mm print elements.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack of ambient sound, songs, spoken dialogue and sound effects — all recorded in the Samoan islands. While we did not advocate this kind of post-synchronization of sound to silent films, the results here are well-produced and give a heightened sense of place to the viewing experience.
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This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .
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 Unidentified
201? DVD edition
Moana (1926), black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.
Unidentified home video producer,
unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $22.00.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
Who knows whether the film is accompanied by a soundtrack of preexisting music recordings or if there is any music at all?
We ask, why would you pay $22.00 for this edition when the Kino editions above are available around the same price point?
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition hs been discontinued
and is . . .
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Other DOCUMENTARY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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