At a glance
Francis Ford Coppola made a name for himself with the "Godfather" franchise, "Apocalypse Now" and other big-budget films.
But in 1963, a 24-year-old Coppola wrote and directed a horror movie, "Dementia 13," on a $40,000 budget.
"Before that moment, I never really believed that I would get to make a feature film," Coppola said in an email interview with The Dispatch.
Central Ohio film fans can see what Coppola considers his first directing effort during "Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration" at the Wexner Center for the Arts. The six-day event begins today, with the premiere of a restored version of "Dementia 13" screening on Saturday.
With the exception of a few shorts, all festival screenings "Dementia 13" Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St. 614-292-3535, www. wexarts.org 7 p.m. Saturday $8, or $6 for members, students and senior citizens; Cinema Revival festival pass: $35 and $30
will showcase restored versions.
"Dementia 13" will be introduced by James Mockoski, film archivist for Coppola's America Zoetrope studio. Mockoski personally restored the pictures in the film, but Coppola was highly involved.
"It is his first film and close to his heart," Mockoski said by email. "It is where he met his wife, Eleanor — so, yes, this film is something he cares very much for, and (he) was with the process every step of the way."
The movie centers on a wealthy but tormented family, the Halorans, who live in an Irish mansion. One adult son dies of a heart attack, and his conniving wife hides the body so she doesn't get cut out of the will. The mother torments herself and her sons by forcing them to visit regularly the grave of her daughter, who died at age 13. Then an axmurderer starts to prowl the premises.
Coppola said that he made a few changes in the revised version.
"I ... cut out some sequences that were added really against my will," he said. "Those sequences, which involve the introduction of a new character so that he could be another axslaying, will be in the extras."
The theme of the festival — film restoration — has long been important to Coppola, who has been involved in preservation and restoration as a board member of the Film Foundation, founded in 1990 by director Martin Scorsese to preserve and restore movies. Coppola has been a board member since its inception.
Preservation involves the transfer of an aging film to modern, stable film stock; restoration refers to the repair and rejuvenation of the images and the soundtrack.
David Filipi, director of film/video at the Wexner Center, said the processes help ensure that film masters are well cared for and to provide clean copies for audiences to watch.
According to the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, fewer than 20 percent of American silent films still survive in complete form and half of all American movies made before 1950 no longer exist.