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.
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.
25 Additions to the National Film Registry
posted December 20, 2018
U.S. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced on 12 December 2018 the annual selection of 25 influential American motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Induction marks films’ cultural, historic, and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage, and being added to the registry ensures that chosen films are permanently preserved.
Home Movie Day 2018 is Here
posted October 20, 2018
Your family members and friends may blanch at the idea of sitting through your home movies, but plenty of people do want to see them – so much so that the Center for Home Movies holds an annual event to facilitate and encourage the sharing of such records of everyday life. This year, takes place today, Saturday, 20 October. Events are being held around the world over this weekend, while other events take place throughout the year.
CLIR Helps Preserve Collections at Risk
posted October 13, 2018
Film of key events in late-1960s political life, footage of Native American song and ceremony, and audiovisual records of diasporic Jewish life in India and other nations are to be preserved thanks to grants from the nonprofit Council on Library and Information Resources. Those films are among the collections of audiovisual content of high scholarly value that have recently received financial support as part of the CLIR’s Recordings at Risk grant program.