Loughney

"There are potentially hundreds of films out there," Loughney said.

Silent films recovered: These new releases are oldest in a long time Peter Finn 2011

Loughney said the Russian library was also interested in film of major Russian cultural figures who fled the Soviet Union, such as the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Silent films recovered: These new releases are oldest in a long time Peter Finn 2011

Loughney said lost films continue to surface in the most unusual places.

Silent films recovered: These new releases are oldest in a long time Peter Finn 2011

"They were training them in the techniques of how to make movies," Loughney says, "and American movies were among the best-made in the world."

NPR Topics: News 2011

"American movies were, in fact, distributed in Russia and the former Soviet Union regularly from around 1910 right up to the outbreak of World War Two," Patrick Loughney tells

NPR Topics: News 2011

I think the jukebox will lead to a rediscovery of these artists, said Patrick Loughney, who oversees the library's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center campus in Culpeper, Va.

The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - washingtonpost.com Justin Jouvenal 2011

Researchers can see the returned films now at the Library of Congress, but Loughney says more work needs to be done before they can be released to the general public.

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"Jared Loughney" for attending a "Congress on your Corner" event at a mall in Tucson in

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"These particular films that we're repatriating now were part of a cache of film prints that were held by the state school of cinematography," Loughney says.

NPR Topics: News 2011

Loughney is in charge of the LOC's Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, and he'll be taking care of the returned films.

NPR Topics: News 2011