Inside the Archive #64: Unearthing lost film and a trip to university

The Joye Collection – an early cinema collection assembled by a Swiss Jesuit between 1905 and 1915 and acquired by the BFI National Archive in 1977 – continues to yield surprises. In recent months, our work on this collection has brought to light fascinating montages of The Life of Moses (both the 1905 Pathé version and the 1909 Vitagraph production), reunited a fragment of an unidentified French drama with the rest of the film, and, most strikingly, revealed a fragment of a long-lost film, Across the Border (1914).

Until now, the only other film produced by the Colorado Motion Picture Company known to survive was Pirates of the Plains (1914), with the rest of the company’s output considered completely lost. Remaining unidentified since the late 1970s, the element pictured above has now been recognised as a fragment of Across the Border.

The title is an infamous American Western released in three parts that tells the story of Anita, the daughter of a Mexican outlaw, and Curly Smith, an American ranger. Following a series of chases, acts of subterfuge, and near-death experiences, the film culminates in the triumph of their romance. Although the film received excellent reviews upon release, the Colorado Motion Picture Company closed in the same year, bringing its brief production history to an abrupt end.

The film is remembered not only for its thrilling action and daring stunts but also for the tragic deaths of actress Grace McHugh and cameraman Owen Carter during production. On 1 July 1914, the two were involved in a fatal accident while filming on location. According to the Colorado Transcript, their boat capsized, and although both managed to reach the riverbank, they were pulled under by quicksand and drowned. Despite the tragedy, Across the Border was released less than two months later, on 17 August 1914.

The search for the remainder of the film continues. The surviving fragment begins midway through the story and contains several narrative leaps. Among the surviving scenes are Curly’s attempt to evade smugglers by allowing himself to be swept away by the current of the Rio Grande – an unsettling echo of the real-life tragedy on set – and Anita’s final, successful effort to save Curly from execution. Although much of the film is missing, the fragment clearly conveys its thematic engagement with America’s relationship to its neighbouring countries and the call to bridge hostilities across the border.

– Makeda Doyal, Student and Film Conservator.

A core commitment for the BFI National Archive is considering the future of our collections and of screen culture for the next generation of users, researchers and archivists. Students hold a key to that future and as part of the Our Screen Heritage programme, we have partnered with three universities: the National Film and Television School (NFTS), Birkbeck (University of London), and the University of Exeter to offer a special guest lecture for their MA students in curation, film studies and related disciplines.

This lecture focuses on born-digital filmmakers’ archives, designed to introduce students to Screencraft and guide them through the process of cataloguing a born-digital item.

The lecture was informed by learnings made during the Our Screen Heritage programme, which has advanced the BFI’s digital archival practice by developing the policies, workflows and infrastructures needed to acquire, catalogue, preserve and provide access to the digital document and visual art archives of UK filmmakers. As part of this work, we collaborated with acclaimed director, producer and screenwriter Gurinder Chadha on her born-digital archive, which is now cared for by BFI Screencraft.

The session aimed to give students hands-on experience with a real archival item, introduce them to basic cataloguing skills aligned with the International Standard Archival Description (General) standard, build confidence in navigating archival hierarchies, and deepen their understanding of born-digital archiving. Understanding how archive catalogues function is a vital skill for students who plan to enter curation or archiving, but also for anyone researching for a film project, working as an archival researcher or producer, or moving into programming.

The session concluded with a discussion about whose archives, or which themes, roles and creative contributions could be preserved for future generations. It has been a pleasure working with students and opening our collections to new audiences to inspire future engagement. We hope these partnerships continue, and we would like to thank the universities for collaborating with us.

– Grace Johnston, Screencraft Archivist and Molly Petter, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Our Screen Heritage and the Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.