“The Salvation Hunters” (1925) now streaming on Film Secession

Description:

“The Salvation Hunters” (U.S., 1925)
Director: Josef von Sternberg
New score!

Watch for free on Film Secession: filmsecession.com/cinema/film/the-salvation-hunters

“Josef von Sternberg’s debut feature already demonstrates the meticulous composition, gestural rhymes, graphic tension, and plastic force that would soon make him one of cinema's preeminent stylists. Made independently for $5,000 and shot on location throughout the Los Angeles area, the film received the backing of United Artists after Charles Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks were cajoled into a private screening (lead actress Georgia Hale would co-star in ‘The Gold Rush’ the next year). ‘The Salvation Hunters’ was celebrated at the time for unadulterated realism, but it now seems like a unique synthesis of pictorialist atmosphere, Symbolist psychology, and Expressionist space. Its mood and sensibility anticipate the postwar filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch.

The soundtrack originates from the debut performance of Dreamscope Trio at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna on June 24, 2025. It was mixed by Eduardo Raon.

Dreamscope Trio is a newly formed ensemble consisting of Matti Bye, Laura Naukkarinen, and Eduardo Raon, three internationally acclaimed silent film musicians who, after decades of accompanying the classics of cinema, have come together to explore new artistic territory.”—Film Secession

“The Salvation Hunters” was photochemically restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Fondazione Cineteca Italiana di Milano and The Library of Congress. Funding provided by The Stanford Theatre Foundation. Special thanks to the Austrian Film Museum.

Complete Record: “The Salvation Hunters” (U.S., 1925) Director: Josef von Sternberg New score! Watch for free on Film Secession: filmsecession.com/cinema/film/the-salvation-hunters “Josef von Sternberg’s debut feature already demonstrates the meticulous composition, gestural rhymes, graphic tension, and plastic force that would soon make him one of cinema's preeminent stylists. Made independently for $5,000 and shot on location throughout the Los Angeles area, the film received the backing of United Artists after Charles Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks were cajoled into a private screening (lead actress Georgia Hale would co-star in ‘The Gold Rush’ the next year). ‘The Salvation Hunters’ was celebrated at the time for unadulterated realism, but it now seems like a unique synthesis of pictorialist atmosphere, Symbolist psychology, and Expressionist space. Its mood and sensibility anticipate the postwar filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. The soundtrack originates from the debut performance of Dreamscope Trio at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna on June 24, 2025. It was mixed by Eduardo Raon. Dreamscope Trio is a newly formed ensemble consisting of Matti Bye, Laura Naukkarinen, and Eduardo Raon, three internationally acclaimed silent film musicians who, after decades of accompanying the classics of cinema, have come together to explore new artistic territory.”—Film Secession “The Salvation Hunters” was photochemically restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Fondazione Cineteca Italiana di Milano and The Library of Congress. Funding provided by The Stanford Theatre Foundation. Special thanks to the Austrian Film Museum.