The Task and Art of Restoring Sound on “Ornette”
posted February 25, 2015
A project like the restoration of Shirley Clarke's portrait of jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman – her 1986 film "Ornette: Made in America" — can hardly succeed if its visual appeal is not matched by sparkling audio. John Polito of Audio Mechanics, in Burbank, Calif., explains what he did to the soundtrack.
Shirley Clarke Makes the Connection with Jason & Ornette
posted February 22, 2015
Shirley Clarke suffered the neglect and disparagement that many great innovators do. But Milestone Films, the vaunted Brooklyn-based restoration and reissue company, has teamed up with various partners to produce restored prints — and now consumer DVDs and Blu-rays — of most of Clarke’s films.
Sticking Up for East German Film
posted January 21, 2015
Under Soviet direction, East German authorities embraced film as a didactic medium; now a collection of posters at George Mason University tells the tale.
Collections Worth Seeing, Hidden in Plain Sight
posted January 9, 2015
“Hidden collections” — specialized caches of many varieties — are being cataloged around the United States with grants from the Council on Library and Information Resources, a collections-support organization that has now begun a new grant cycle to enable archives to make digital replicas so the "hidden" collections can be more readily shared with researchers and the general public.
25 Films Added to the U.S. National Film Registry
posted December 22, 2014
U.S. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced the annual selection of motion pictures to be added to the Library's National Film Registry. They span from 1913 to 2004, and include Hollywood classics, documentaries, silent movies, student films, and independent and experimental films. They are dramas, comedies, westerns, animated films, and in the case of the 1953 House of Wax, the first full-length 3-D color film produced and released by a major American film studio.
Two Great Collections of Jazz on Film Become One
posted December 21, 2014
Two of the most impressive collections of films of jazz and other American popular music have combined: Celluloid Improvisations Music Film Archive and the storied Chertok Jazz on Film Collection. It's the jazz-film equivalent of the Basie and Ellington bands joining forces.
African American Home Movies: Are They Out There? Can You Help Locate Them?
posted December 2, 2014
Jasmyn R. Castro, a moving-image archivist in training, is testing the notion that African American home movies are rare because they have rarely been made.
Time to Start Fixing India’s Tattered Film Heritage
posted November 18, 2014
India’s cinematic heritage is vast, varied, and in dire need of better care — some film makers and supporters are taking the first steps to remedying a huge problem. They have drawn support and assistance from some of the world's most capable archivists to offer a crash course in best practices.
Do You Have Archival War Stories to Tell
posted November 7, 2014
Do you have War Stories from the Moving Image Archives Trade that you'd like to share?
In NY, Showing Orphan Indies; in the UK, Easing Access to them, Protecting Possible Holders of Copyrights, and Busting Crooks Who Breach Them
posted November 1, 2014
Orphan films find friends in New York, while the British government seeks to help anyone who would like to make use of abandoned films without fear of being pursued for copyright breach, while it also cracks the whip on criminals who flaunt copyright law, to their own devious ends.