A love letter to film preservation, Nate Neal’s Treasure of the Lost Reel is Indiana Jones for cinephiles.

Heck (Sean Shannon) is a teacher by day and a hunter of lost film in his spare time. His latest acquisition is a rare Boffo cartoon. He’s approached by Bellamy (Kevin R. Free), who makes a convincing argument that his grandfather created a character, Biffo, which the company Pinnacle (who are definitely not Disney, no, sir… not at all) used to ‘inspire’ Boffo. With the original cartoon seemingly lost, Bellamy has no claim for copyright infringement. Heck takes on the task of finding the missing film, as does his ex, Laurel (Katie Hannigan), who runs a film-based show and wants to screen the cartoon. Pinnacle, however, wants to find the movie for more sinister reasons, since it would void the trademark on their Boffo character. They put their Mr Fix-it (William Russ) on the case, and he’ll go to extreme lengths to ensure Biffo never comes to light.

Populated with likeable characters, Nate Neal’s film is a passionate yet whimsical tale that feels as if it came from a different age itself. The love of physical film formats and classic animation is clear; the extracts from the shorts are pitch-perfect, evoking the classic Max Fleischer Betty Boop style. It also provides a quick guide to copyright law and an exaggerated look at how far some companies (ahem) will go to keep their characters from entering the public domain.  At its heart is the timeless story of the little guy fighting a big corporation, with some memorable exchanges between Heck and Pinnacle’s Mr Fix-it; the park chase being a highlight. Shot on the streets of New York, there’s a low-key charm to the film that’s difficult to resist.

TREASURE OF THE LOST REEL had its world premiere at New York Big Apple Film Festival and screens at Manhattan Film Festival on Thursday, June 18th.