Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jerome Hill, heir to a railroad fortune, was a writer, painter, and composer who is best known today for his film diaries and award–winning documentaries (Albert Schweitzer, 1957, and Grandma Moses, 1950). Completed shortly before Hill's death in 1972, Film Portrait is the summation of his life's work in film, a vivid collage of home movies, earlier short films, and found footage. The film spans Hill's entire biography, from his privileged and happy childhood in a wealthy Midwestern family through his restless adult years spent in quest of personal and artistic fulfillment. Heavily influenced both thematically and formally by cinema pioneers like Georges Méliès and the Lumière brothers, he also worked as a film artist at the same time that American avant-garde cinema came to maturity. As a result, Film Portrait is also the record of a movement—a film about Film. Happily, Film Portrait, which premiered at The Museum of Modern Art—and other films in the Museum's Jerome Hill Collection—are currently being restored with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation.