Explore the project

The Problem

According to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, of an estimated 259 silent feature films produced in Australia from 1906 to 1930, only 67 survive today.(1) Of these surviving films, 23 are “substantially complete” with the remainder existing in incomplete form, ranging from “partially complete films” to “fragments of the original footage”.(2)

The Moth of Moonbi is a partially complete film as only half an hour of the original 2-hour 20-minute feature survives today.(3)

While films that survive in complete or near-complete form are candidates for film reconstruction, this is not possible for partially lost films like The Moth of Moonbi as there is neither an accurate record of the film’s narrative – such as the original script or shot list – nor sufficient historical material to reconstruct the film visually.

In the words of renowned silent film historian and curator Paolo Cherchi Usai: “There is no worse destiny for a silent film than to be found in an incomplete form (except perhaps being also unidentified). By and large, audiences are not interested in looking at truncated copies; therefore, it is much harder for collecting institutions to secure financial support for their preservation.”(4)

As a result, many incomplete films remain unknown and unseen by the public.

The Project

As a classic film enthusiast with an interest in early Australian film, I was perplexed by The Moth of Moonbi’s slow descent into obscurity and wondered in what ways and to what extent I might be able to encourage appreciation of this important yet forgotten film. 

I identified its fragmented narrative as a major barrier to audiences’ understanding and enjoyment of the film and reasoned that finding a means to provide access to missing information about the film’s story and characters could help achieve this aim.

For this to happen, I realised that I needed to generate awareness of The Moth of Moonbi and my research project.

Diagram of a two-stage rocket with arrows indicating upward movement. The rocket has a larger bottom stage and a smaller top stage.

I had used dramatised re-enactments in several short-form documentaries where limited or no visual support material was available. These recreations were based on actual events and informed by historical sources such as recorded interviews, personal documents, photographs, and, in one instance, home movies. 

I wondered if historical material from The Moth of Moonbi – surviving footage; production stills; promotional material such as posters and screening programs; original sheet music; newspaper and magazine articles and reviews, etc. – could similarly be used as the basis for speculative recreations of the film’s key lost scenes. These recreations would adhere as closely as possible to the narrative and style of Charles Chauvel’s original film and ideally be viewed in conjunction with The Moth of Moonbi’s surviving footage. 

Such recreations are not substitutes for lost originals nor do they offer definitive versions of missing scenes: they are resources which enable modern audiences to visualise missing information about the film’s story and characters and gain greater understanding and appreciation of the original film work.

Puzzle diagram illustrating the concept of missing pieces, showing a partially completed puzzle on the left with missing pieces and a completed puzzle on the right with missing pieces highlighted in red, with labels pointing to the gaps indicating the missing pieces.

In this way, recreations function as new pieces of an incomplete jigsaw puzzle that not only allows audiences to see connections between existing pieces and to picture what the original puzzle may have looked like but, perhaps more importantly, redirect the audience to the puzzle and encourage them to engage with it.  

(1) National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 1995. Keepin’ Silent: A selection of Australian Silent Films made from 1896 onwards, available from the National Collection, p. 122.

(2) Ibid.

(3) The Moth of Moonbi was originally 9000 feet. According to the National Film and Sound Archive, 2334 feet of 35mm film (33 minutes projected at 18 frames per second) survives today. See Ibid, p. 145.; The running time given by actor Mardsen Hassall is 2-hours and 20-minutes. See Pike, Andrew, prod. 1970. “Hassall, (Marsden) Tom and Doris Hassall: Interviewed by Andrew Pike.” 284936. Digital audio/mp3. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Canberra, ACT. https://www.collection.nfsa.gov.au/title/284936).

(4) Usai, Paolo Cherchi. 2019. Silent Cinema: A Guide to Study, Research and Curatorship. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 270.