Last night I was searching for a specific movie. I went searching for streaming services like Amazon, Mubi and so on, but there was nowhere to be found! Then I searched for a DVD and again I found nothing. Finally, I went through all the pirate sites that I already knew, and typed “Winter in Sokcho 2024”. I went on searching for about 30 minutes. A movie would come up, but the movie didn’t exist at all.
At that point, I realized that I might be the only person who wanted to watch this movie.
Then I asked myself, how many movies are lost like this? Maybe a copy exists somewhere forgotten, yet nowhere to be found. It was played in cinemas for some time though.
Have you ever come at this point? I will go with the book for now, the only thing that exits.
More than most would guess I bet. Most movies have very limited release if any in theaters, and may have been part of a film festival or just someone who wants to try their hand at directing and producing and was watched once in one screening then never seen again. There’s archives to try to preserve some of it but not everything gets submitted for archival or preserved.