Preservation Fund
Preservation Fund brings together key directors of cinémathèques in Latin America, film archives, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to meet in a roundtable environment with the purpose of awarding a grant every year for the restoration and archival of a classic Latin film. The condition of archived films has been decaying as Latin countries are faced with tough economic times. Without a legacy of viewable films, it is impossible to teach the next generation the accomplishments and history of Latin cinema. The film restored through the grant will be given a special presentation during the year or during the next year’s Festival.
Academy Film Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences™
The Academy Film Archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquires and preserves materials that have contributed to the development of the art and science of the motion picture. In addition to prints of Academy Award-nominated and winning films , the archive holds the personal collections of past and current Academy members, as well as a diverse collection of avant-garde, documentary, and animated films. Ongoing film festival collections include the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. The LALIFF collection is freely available for consultation on the Archive’s premises to all students, scholars, and filmmakers.
In addition to its collective activities, the Academy Film Archive has become a leader in film preservation. It has partnered with industry experts on the restoration of several Best Picture winners including How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Sound of Music (1965) and Patton (1970), and has preserved significant documentaries, such as Hearts and Minds (1974 Best Documentary Feature winner), Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County USA (1976), as well as works by Les Blank, Charles Guggenheim, and Robert Drew. The Academy Film Archive has also collaborated with LALIFF and the Film and Electronic Arts Department of California State University, Long Beach on film preservation and restoration projects. Bolivian director Jorge Ruiz’s Alaska Mine (Mina Alaska 1968) was restored in 2002, and the Archive produced a new 35mm print of his award-winning documentary Come Back, Sebastiana (Vuelve Sebastiana, 1953). As part of an ongoing effort to collect films that have been nominated or have won Academy Awards®, the Archive has acquired a new 35mm print of the Mexican film Macario (1960) by Roberto Gavaldón, which also involved the collaboration of the Archivo de Cine y TV of the Universidad Autónoma de México. Little Giants (Los Pequeños Gigantes, 1960) by Hugo Butler, working as Hugo Mozo, is a new addition to the Latin American film collection.
The Archive’s new home, the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, can be found at the corner of Vine and Fountain streets in Hollywood, California. The Center features the 286-seat Lynwood Dunn Theater, four temperature and humidity-controlled vaults, a Public Access Center, and all of the Archive’s offices and workspaces. For more information on the Academy Film Archive, visit www.oscars.org. The Archive generously coordinated the technical logistics for the Treasures and More Treasures DVD set and serves as the repository for the two project’s digital production files.
Film Acquisition and Preservation Committee:
Marlene Dermer
Josef W. Lindner
Michael Pogorzelski
José Sánchez-H.
LOS PEQUE?OS GIGANTES
LITTLE GIANTS
[MEXICO]
Directed by Hugo Butler (as Hugo Mozo)
Based on a true story about the Monterrey Industrial Little League team and young man Ángel Macias’ determination to win, without realizing he was pitching a perfect game. Macias’ gift for the game of baseball led to commentaries referring to him as Mexico’s Babe Ruth and performance of the boys from Monterrey garnered notoriety and an invitation to the White House. Former presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were U.S. Senators when they met this team which managed to attract the attention of many people in the U.S. Their journey from obscurity to notoriety was later captured in the film Little Giants with the team this time playing in front of the movie cameras. Continental Distributing, Inc. wanted the team to tour the U.S. promoting the film by selling tickets, but Little League Baseball considered this an exploitation of players and did not grant permission. Little Giants did not become a success at the box office. In 1960 and 1961 NBC broadcast the film to a very receptive audience with a new title, How Tall is a Giant?
Directed by Academy Award-nominee screenwriter, Canadian born Hugo Butler. He worked as a journalist and playwright before he moved to California in 1937 and wrote thirty-four screenplays through his career. Hugo Butler and his wife Jean Rouveral were married in 1940 and soon after that, he served in the U.S. military during WW II. Both of them were black-listed by the studios in the 1950s and moved to Mexico where they lived for thirteen years. In 2001 Jean Rouveral, who was an author, actress and also a screenwriter, published the book Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years. Credited as Phillip Ansel Roll, H. B. Addis, Hugo D. Butler, Jack Jevne, and Hugo Mozo, Butler also co-wrote two scripts with legendary director Luis Buñuel, Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe) made in 1952, and The Young One (La Joven) made in 1960. Butler died of a heart attack in 1968. In 2000, he was posthumously given official credit by the Writers Guild of America for the scripts he wrote under other names.
Director Hugo Butler
Producer George P. Werker
Screenwriters Hugo Butler and Edward Huebsch (originally as Eduardo Bueno)
Cinematographer Walter Reuter
Editor Giovani Korporaal
Music Rodolfo Halffter and Rosalío Ramírez
Cast Ángel Macias, Francisco Aguilar, Claudio Brook, Baltasar Charles, Juan Contreras, Alfonso Cortes, Rafael Estrella, César L. Faz, Pedro Galván, Gerardo González, Irving Lee, José Maiz, Roberto Mendiola, Mario Ontiveros, Fidel Ruiz, Enrique Suárez, Norberto Villarreal.
Film Language Spanish
Subtitles English
Film Year 1960
Run Time 100 min
Print Source Michael Pogorzelski, Director, Academy Film Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences™, 1313 Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90028.
New 35mm subtitled print created by the Academy Film Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences™; Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival; and the Film and Electronic Arts Department of California State University, Long Beach.