About Us
Undercrank Productions is a distributor and producer of quality DVD/BluRay releases of rare silent films that deserve an audience. We work with both archives and private collectors to bring the undiscovered classics of silent cinema from film cans to film fans.
Undercrank Productions DVD releases have brought silent film comedians Marcel Perez and Harry Watson (as “Musty Suffer”) back to screens for the first time since their films were in release 100 years ago. Both these releases were produced in a collaboration with the Library of Congress, with whom we have a co-branding agreement. The Marcel Perez Collection was the recipient of the “Special Mention” award at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival’s 2015 DVD Awards.
Other releases, such as our Accidentally Preserved series, have brought 27 different rare/lost comedy shorts from collectors’ unique 16mm prints made in the 1920s-40s to home video, as well as a feature starring Monty Banks that had been unseen for over 80 years which was sourced from a unique 35mm nitrate print.
Undercrank Productions is quite literally a “collector’s brand” as most of our releases are funded by silent film fans. Each DVD is produced for video and scored by renowned silent film accompanist/historian Ben Model, is in most cases crowd-funded by fans through Kickstarter, and is available at online retailers. The films on the DVDs are presented in new digital scans in either HD or 2K, feature new musical scores on piano or theatre organ by Ben Model, and each has professional case artwork designed by Marlene Weisman.
