Orson Welles on location in Fortaleza, Brazil, filming It’s All True in 1942. (Paramount Pictures)
Out of print in recent years, the 1993 documentary Its All True: Based on an Unfinished Film By Orson Welles was re-released on DVD this week by Paramount Home Video.
The documentary recalls Welles’ ill-fated wartime project with filmmakers Myron Meisel, Bill Krohn and the late Richard Wilson reconstructing one his three planned segments, Four Men on a Raft.
It’s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles was named Best Non-Fiction Film of 1993 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and its filmmaking trio honored by the National Society of Film Critics.
The Paramount re-release, which carries a $14.99 suggested price tag, is only available on DVD, even though a restored version on DCP was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in April 2019.
Wellesnet has asked Paramount about a possible Blu-ray release, but not yet received a response.
The documentary was first released on DVD by Paramount in November 2004.
The timing of the re-release may have been triggered by a new Brazilian documentary on the same subject, Jangada de Welles.
It’s All True was to have been Welles’s third film for RKO Radio Pictures, after Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. The project was a co-production of RKO and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.
During filming in 1942, RKO underwent major management changes. Nelson Rockefeller, the primary backer of the Latin America project, left its board of directors, and Welles’ chief backer, studio president George Schaefer, resigned. The new faces at RKO were hostile toward Welles and drastically edited The Magnificent Ambersons while he was out of the country. The Latin America project was subsequently shelved.
Fired by RKO, Welles unsuccessfully attempted to find backing and release It’s All True.
The footage was believed lost, but 309 cans of black-and-white nitrate negative and five cans of unidentified positive film was discovered in the Paramount vaults by Fred Chandler, director of technical services, in 1981.
The 1993 documentary includes scenes from two parts of the film My Friend Bonito, directed in Mexico by Norman Foster, and the Welles-helmed Carnaval/ The Story of Samba, shot in Rio. It concludes with a reconstruction of the third segment, Jangadeiros/ Four Men on a Raft, directed by Welles in Fortaleza.
__________
Post your comments on the Wellesnet Message Board.