Donald Crafton, professor of film, television and theatre (FTT) at the University of Notre Dame, is prominently featured in a new DVD compilation set, “More Treasures From American Film Archives, 1894-1931,” recently released by the National Film Preservation Foundation.p. Crafton is one of 17 historians, critics and preservationists who contributed commentary for the three-disc box set, which showcases the first four decades of American filmmaking. The 9½-hour collection features 50 rare films and six trailers, including such works as the earliest surviving sound film, produced in 1894 by Thomas Edison’s laboratory; “Clash of the Wolves,” starring the original Rin-Tin-Tin; and the first surviving film of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”p. Named an Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2001, Crafton is the author of “Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928” and “The Talkies: American Cinemas Transition to Sound, 1926-1931,” which in 1999 won a Kraszna-Krausz Book Award. He was honored earlier this year with the Award for Special Contribution to the Theory of Animation at the 2004 World Festival of Animated Films, held in June in Zagreb, Croatia.p. Crafton joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1997 and specializes in film history and visual culture. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and earned his masters degree from the University of Iowa and a second masters and his doctoral degree from Yale University.p. _Contact: Don Crafton, 574-631-7054, crafton.1@nd.edu _ p.
TopicID: 6782