{"id":17464,"date":"2025-10-15T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/library\/?p=17464"},"modified":"2026-08-11T14:33:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T20:33:05","slug":"boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/library\/2025\/10\/15\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Archivists Hervochon and Meregaglia help revive nearly lost Idaho film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Archivists and Associate Professors Gwyn Hervochon and Alessandro (Alex) Meregaglia were recently invited to participate in a panel discussion at the Kenworthy Silent Film Festival<\/a> in Moscow, Idaho. The festival featured the premiere of the restored silent film, \u201cTold in the Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Members of the panel who spoke at the Kenworthy Silent Film Festival (left to right): Nakia Williamson-Cloud, Director of the Cultural Resources Program of the Nez Perce Tribe; Colin Mannex, Executive Director of the Kenworthy Theatre; Filmmaker Tom Frank; Gwyn Hervochon; and Alessandro Meregaglia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Filmed in 1919 almost entirely in Idaho, the movie was deemed a \u201clost film\u201d for decades before Boise State English professor Tom Trusky<\/a> discovered in 1986 that two of the original six reels had been preserved in the Russian film archives, Gosfilmofond. Trusky obtained copies of the reels and , in 1990, showed the film in Lewiston, Idaho, near where the movie was made. After that, the film sat largely dormant. The film reels, along with Trusky\u2019s original research and photographs he found from the filming, are housed in Boise State\u2019s Special Collections and Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre in Moscow, Idaho, received several grants, including from Boise State\u2019s Idaho Film Collection<\/a>, to re-digitize those two surviving reels and to work with a filmmaker to use other surviving film materials (still photographs, the photoplay and the intertitle script) to recreate the full-length movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hervochon and Meregaglia coordinated the re-digitization of the film reels and worked closely with the Kenworthy Theatre to digitize photographs from Boise State\u2019s collections. The Kenworthy also commissioned a new score for the entire film, which was performed live at the premiere by local musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth day of the film festival featured Nell Shipman short films. Shipman, a silent film actor and director, established a film studio in Idaho in the 1920s and filmed all those shorts at Priest Lake, in northern Idaho. The Kenworthy commissioned new scores for the Shipman shorts as well, which premiered at the festival. Like \u201cTold in the Hills,\u201d Tom Trusky also located copies of Shipman films through his work researching Idaho film history. Boise State\u2019s Special Collections and Archives houses Nell Shipman\u2019s papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival received widespread media attention, including a story that aired nationally on NPR\u2019s All Things Considered<\/a>, a separate story that aired on Northwest Public Broadcasting<\/a>, and articles in The Spokesman-Review<\/a>, The Lewiston Tribune<\/a>, and The Inlander<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archivists and Associate Professors Gwyn Hervochon and Alessandro (Alex) Meregaglia were recently invited to participate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3472,"featured_media":17465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2626,2585],"tags":[2535,2798,2510],"class_list":["post-17464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employees-in-the-news","category-special-collections-and-archives","tag-albertsons-library","tag-faculty-in-action","tag-special-collections-and-archives"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArchivists Hervochon and Meregaglia help revive nearly lost Idaho film - Albertsons Library<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boise State archivists Gwyn Hervochon and Alessandro Meregaglia coordinated the re-digitization of the lost film "Told in the Hills," which premiered at the Kenworthy Silent Film Festival.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/library\/2025\/10\/15\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archivists Hervochon and Meregaglia help revive nearly lost Idaho film\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Boise State archivists Gwyn Hervochon and Alessandro Meregaglia coordinated the re-digitization of the lost film "Told in the Hills," which premiered at the Kenworthy Silent Film Festival.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/library\/2025\/10\/15\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Albertsons Library\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-15T20:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T20:33:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/668\/2025\/10\/d4b0b7f8-ff4b-435d-882b-0223dd3364071-1-1-1200x630.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Skye Vialpando\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Skye Vialpando\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Skye Vialpando\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3c5cc9467ef4f4a8a75df939924074e3\"},\"headline\":\"Archivists Hervochon and Meregaglia help revive nearly lost Idaho film\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-15T20:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-11T20:33:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/668\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/d4b0b7f8-ff4b-435d-882b-0223dd3364071-1-1-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Albertsons Library\",\"Faculty in Action\",\"Special Collections and Archives\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Employees in the News\",\"Special Collections and Archives\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.boisestate.edu\\\/library\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/15\\\/boisestate-archivists-restore-silent-film\\\/\",\"name\":\"Archivists Hervochon and Meregaglia help revive nearly lost Idaho film - 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