A silent comedy missing for more than a century will finally screen again in the New Hampshire town where it was born.
Film student Kohei Okita, who was researching movies about “anarchy,” stumbled across the 1919 picture “Van-ar-chy” inside a dusty antique shop in Japan, according to the comedian’s website. He had purchased a batch of old reels without knowing what they held.
Once Okita realized what he had uncovered, he reached out to New Hampshire film archivist John Tariot, who restored the damaged footage. Tariot is now preparing to unveil the movie at the Newport Opera House on Nov. 1 at 2 p.m., exactly where it was created over 100 years ago.
“For nearly a century… [Van-ar-chy] was presumed lost forever, sadly the fate of roughly 75% of all American silent films,” said Kiki Keating, a spokesperson for Tariot.
“An extraordinary story of international discovery, lost cinema, and local New Hampshire history is heading to the stage at [New Hampshire’s] Newport Opera House — the lost film is making its official world premiere back where it was created over 100 years ago,” Keating added.
The man behind the camera, Billy B. Van, was born William Webster Van de Grift in 1870. He had already made his name in vaudeville and on Broadway before he constructed the Equity Motion Picture Company on the shores of Lake Sunapee. Many historians consider that facility northern New England’s first movie studio.
Van developed a distinctive working method during his years there. He would cast locals in his slapstick comedies and shoot them on the region’s own streets, which means audience members at the Newport screening may recognize their great-grandparents or other past relatives appearing as extras in the restored footage.
The Nov. 1 event will pair “Van-ar-chy” with live music performances. It will also feature the premiere of another Van picture from the same year, “Where Are Your Husbands?,” a role-reversal farce that was also rediscovered more than a century after its creation.
The double rediscovery is rare good news for silent-film preservationists. The vast majority of American movies from the era have vanished entirely, destroyed by nitrate decomposition, studio neglect, or the simple passage of time.
Okita’s find demonstrates how forgotten material can still surface in unexpected places. A student pursuing an academic interest in political themes ended up rescuing a piece of American comedy history from an unmarked collection on the other side of the world.
Tariot’s restoration work has now prepared both films for public viewing after decades of darkness.
The Newport Opera House screening marks the first time “Van-ar-chy” has been shown since the silent era.