Bruce Lawton

Bruce Lawton is an all around motion picture and video specialist, who hails from three generations of noted cinematographers (Don, Karl & Rick Malkames) who have long been involved in film restoration and preservation. His enthusiastic interest in "the family trade" took hold at an early age (before he learned to speak actually!) and blossomed into an insatiable appetite for early cinema - particularly classic comedy. His tireless study of film throughout childhood prepared him for a five year tenure with Killiam Shows in New York City where from 1988 to 1992, he served as archival director of the company's vast collection of restored silent classics and archival materials. In the past, he has produced and edited documentaries and presentations for public and international television and presided over numerous home video releases for Republic Pictures and The Voyager Company. Editor, Andrew Marcus commissioned him to prepare special sequences which appeared in the Merchant-Ivory productions, "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe". He provided archival material for the AFI's "Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography", served as a consultant on Jazzmedia's "The Chaplin Puzzle" and was the East Coast coordinator on Chuck Workman's "The First 100 Years of Film" for HBO. He discovered and provided material which made it possible for Turner Entertainment to more fully restore Buster Keaton's "The Cameraman" and has helped track down rare material for Michael Agee's series of Laurel & Hardy silents on DVD. He has had the pleasure of working with Kevin Brownlow and David Gill on the three-part television series, "D.W. Griffith: The Father of Film" - as well as assisting them with their restoration of "The Gold Rush" for The Chaplin Estate. Other related activities have included producing archival transfers of over ten hours of rare audio recordings of Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz for a CD-ROM produced by Lucie Arnaz and inspecting Paramount's film and video vaults on both coasts in order to review their archival preservation program. Since 1996, Bruce has been producing "live cinema" programs with silent film accompanist, Ben Model. They co-founded "The Silent Clowns Film Series" (the longest running silent film series in New York City). Bruce is the vice-president of Silent Cinema Presentations, Inc.- a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting and preserving all aspects of the silent film experience as well as rescuing and restoring the films themselves. As of 2002, Bruce is avidly working to save a collection of unique production rushes and outtakes from the silent classics of legendary Hollywood pioneer and superstar, Douglas Fairbanks.