'Upstream': A treasure, once thought lost, screens Wednesday

This Wednesday, thanks to the good folks at the Northwest Chicago Film Society, a John Ford film that hasn't been shown in Chicago since 1927 returns to the big screen. This "lovable mutt" of a comedy, as described by the NCFS' Kyle Westphal, is called "Upstream," a late silent era Fox production. And until 2010, when it turned up in promising condition in the vaults of the New Zealand Film Archive, it was considered a lost picture, like so many thousands of cinematic fatalities done in by the dangers and vulnerabilities of nitrate film stock.

Michael Phillips

November 29, 2012