2019 National Film Registry Additions Announced
posted December 12, 2019
United States Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced the annual addition of influential American motion pictures to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Twenty five films are being added for their cultural, historic, and aesthetic importance: Among them are blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, and independent films.
How Deeply Deceptive? Dealing with the Deepfake.
posted September 10, 2019
Suddenly, the realistic but concocted moving images known as “deep fakes” are very much in the news. Those are versions of existing footage that has been jerryrigged to look very like the originals, but to convey something different, often with great plausibility. What challenges will they pose to archivists, and how ready are archivists for their onslaught? Less so than they probably should be.
NFPF Awards Grants to 35 Institutions
posted August 23, 2019
The National Film Preservation Foundation has announced grants to 35 institutions to save 74 films. Since Congress created the NFPF in 1996, the agency has provided preservation support through grants and collaborative projects to 304 institutions to preserve 2,478 films. The preservation grants target newsreels, silent-era films, home movies, avant-garde films, and endangered independent productions that are unlikely to be preserved by commercial programs.
Australia’s NFSA Receives Copy of Moon Landing Broadcast
posted July 2, 2019
As the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo moon landing approaches, Australia’s national science agency has donated one of only three known official copies of television film footage of the event to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It is the only copy held outside the United States.
A Diva’s Amazing Grace, A Filmmaker’s Persistence
posted June 13, 2019
In January 1972, a 29-year-old Aretha Franklin, already renowned in soul behind five Grammys and 11 No. 1 singles on the Billboard charts, returned to her roots with two evenings of riveting gospel worship in the run-down New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles. The soaring celebrations of faith became legendary moments in popular-music history. They also produced a long, confused saga of film loss and retrieval.
Denmark Breathes Life into the Original Nordic Noir
posted June 3, 2019
The Danish Film Institute has launched a major effort to preserve and disseminate the country’s silent-film output. With 30 million Danish kroner (about $US4.5-million) from three foundations, the Institute has begun to digitize the whole of the remaining early movie heritage. That amounts to some 415 titles from the “golden age of Danish silent film” — about 350 hours of viewing — that archivists at the Institute are digging out of storage to restore, preserve, and disseminate through screenings and online postings.
Library Council Awards Grants to Nine Audiovisual Collections
posted May 2, 2019
The Council on Library and Information Resources, an independent, nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that works to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institution, and communities of higher learning, has awarded its Recordings at Risk grants to 20 institutions. Among the 20 awards, 9 relate to audiovisual collections, and they range in value from $10,908 to $50,000.
The Huntley Footage Service Goes Blogging
posted April 13, 2019
To publicize a film-archive service, a well-written, attractively presented blog may serve as well as a paid advertisement. The Huntley Film Archives, based in rural Herefordshire, has recently begun to take that route to spreading the word about its holdings, and its blog — The Voice from the Vaults — makes for fascinating reading whether or not you are looking to buy film clips.
The Signal Tower Heads the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
posted April 3, 2019
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the leading North American event of its kind, takes place May 1-5 at the city’s historic Castro Theatre, and among the event’s great attractions, this year, is the screening of a restoration of "The Signal Tower," a 1924 railroad drama set in the picturesque redwoods of northern California.
AMIA Authors: Writing about Moving Image Archiving
posted March 4, 2019
If you wonder how to film on 3mm cameras, or safeguard born-digital media content, or navigate the choppy waters of new-media creation and preservation, you will find leads on AMIA Authors, a recently launched website of items about moving-image archiving.