“Thousands of movies made in Hollywood before 1950 no longer exist. Some were destroyed by malice, others by negligence (90 percent of all silent films). And of those movies made since 1950, there are no guarantees. But such matters are the domain of film preservationists, and while their work should not be undervalued, just as significant is another species of movies you can’t see: movies that do exist, that may even be no more than a few years old, but that remain as elusive as those maligned masterpieces of von Stroheim and Welles. Movies, in other words, without distribution — or with distributors who, for one reason or another, refuse to release them.”