Amateur film preservation in the context of the Association of Moving Image Archivists

AMIA Miami, Maryann

Gomes from the
Northwest Film Archive Small Gauge Film Symposium with four
attends her first AMIA AMIA Montreal confer- days of workshops, screenings, and pre-
The National Film conference; helps ence, group screening, sentations related to film of all kinds on
Dr. James Billington,
Preservation Act, start the Regional The Richness of the small gauges in Portland, Oregon, as part
The first annual Librarian of Congress,
1996 version, reautho- Audiovisual Archives Regions: Projecting a of the AMIA annual conference.
Human Studies conference of AMIA adds Zapruder Film
rizes the National Film interest group (RAVA). Global Picture of the Photo courtesy Janice Simpson, AMIA
Film Archives, takes place in New (1963) to the National
Dept. of Film Registry. Other Preservation Board Twentieth Century.
York, there is an
Anthropology, amateur titles on the (NFPB) for seven years
The National Center amateur film panel: AMIA’s Small Gauge and
National Museum and creates the feder- Library of Congress and
for Film and Video Stephen Gong, Registry are added, in National Film
ally chartered private National Film Preservation Amateur Film interest group cre-
of Natural History, Preservation estab- Micheline Morriset, 1996 Topaz (1943-45), Preservation Foundation,
Fast sector National Film Board fund AMIA- ated to continue work begun by First international Home
Smithsonian lished by the AFI and Karen Ishizuka, home movie footage charitable affiliate
Rewind: Preservation Foundation. convened Roundtable Small Gauge Task Force and Movie Day (sponsored
Institution, estab- NEA. Stephen Gong Pam Wintle. taken at a Japanese of the National Film The Reel Thing IX:
The AMIA gets a seat on the on Small Gauge Film Inédits interest group; chair, by AMIA): meet film
lished. Pam and Gregory Lukow American internment Preservation Board, gives Laboratory Technical
Arch- NFPB. Preservation, hosted by Snowden Becker. archivists, learn longevity
Wintle collects provide guidance on camp, and later these: first Laboratory-Archive Symposium Montreal,
aeology of Moving Images Grover Crisp at Sony, to benefits of film, see fam-
and preserves creating regional and Cologne: From The Partnership grants; recipi- Toni Treadway presents
amateur films as conference in Rochester, Diary Of Ray And ents include Smithsonian
advance the US National Orphans II, Documenting the 20th Century, ily films.
specialist archives. 8mm Logging in the www.homemovieday.com
documentation of NY, panel on home mov- Création à Paris Film Preservation Plan by includes Nico De Klerk, Netherlands
Esther (1939) Institution (Groucho Marx High Sierras (1939) and
ies includes filmmaker Alan de l’Association collaborating on selecting Filmmuseum, with Dutch East Indies ama- HMD was organized
cultural and histori- From Stump To Ship Home Movies); Northeast a sound 8mm film held by
Berliner and NHF’s Karan Européenne Inédits. and preserving amateur teur film, and panel with Melinda Stone on in 2002 by Snowden
cal activities. (1930) Historic Film (Albert the Smithsonian Human
Sheldon. Fast Rewinds orga- (Unpublished, i.e., and small gauge film. California Amateur Film Clubs; Karen Glynn, Becker, Bryan
Multiple Sidosis (1970) Benedict Home Movies); Studies Film Archive,
nized by Bruce Austin at RIT personal or amateur Photo courtesy Janice Mississippi Mule Race Movies; Andrea Graney, Chad Hunter,
Tacoma Narrows Southern Media Archive Native American dancing
in 1989, 1991, and 1993. film) Simpson, AMIA McCarty, Making The Movie Queen. Greg Dwight Swanson, Katie
Bridge Collapse (1940) (Thomas Collection). in New Mexico.
Lukow gives a paper on the history of the Trainor.
Orphan metaphor.
Photo courtesy Dan Streible

2001

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1993
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An amateur industrial,
From Stump to Ship,
16mm restoration funded
by Maine Humanities
Council. In 1986 Northeast
Historic Film founded.
Cineric donates 35mm
preservation 2002, NHF
exhibits new print at the
Library of Congress in
2003 and MOMA in 2005.
In 2004 Janna Jones’s
article on the film in AMIA
journal The Moving Image.
Bob Brodsky and Toni
Treadway publish film-
makers’ manual, Super
8 in the Video Age.
1982-85 NEA National
Services grants
awarded to B & T to
tour media arts centers
to help small-gauge
artists.
East Anglian Film Archive Masters Course
starts; David Cleveland founded the Archive
in 1976—holdings include family and per-
sonal films and videos.
Photo courtesy Jane Alvey.
1995
1994
Home Movies and Privacy,
NHF’s second annual sym-
posium, presenters Patricia
Zimmermann, Mark Neumann,
Eric Schwartz, and Eric
Schaefer. In the first year
William O’Farrell, Chief
Fédération Internationale des Archives NFPF receives funding of Moving Image & Audio New Zealand Film
Formation of AMIA du Film (FIAF) conference in Cartagena, for Treasures of American
Conservation at the National Archive exhibition, www.filmforever.org, a
Amateur Materials Colombia, symposium Out of the Attic: Film Archives, includes
Getty Research Institute Archives of Canada, spoke on 8Super8 with 8mm Website for home film
Association of working group. Archiving Amateur Film. FIAF Journal of amateur film from
symposium organized the Amateur Cinema League, and Super 8 cam- preservation spon-
Moving Image In 1993 name Film Preservation preceded meeting with Japanese American
by Karen Ishizuka, with a 1939 Hiram Percy eras, projectors. sored by AMIA, goes
Archivists (AMIA) becomes Inédits an Open Forum on amateur film and National Museum,
The Past as Present: Maxim Memorial Award globe. live. By Jean-Louis
emerges out of interest group. followed in 1998 with Jan-Christopher Minnesota Historical
The Home Movies as Bigourdan, Liz Coffey,
the Film/ Chairs Pam Wintle, Horak’s article about the symposium— Society, National
a Cinema of Record. and Dwight Swanson,
Television Karen Ishizuka, on taking amateur cinema seriously. Museum of American
Genesis of book in edited by Bob Brodsky,
Archives Micheline Morisset. History,Northeast Historic Karen Shopsowitz produces My Father’s
press, Mining the Home Toni Treadway (www.
Advisory Camera, www.nfb.ca/fatherscamera
Movie: Excavations into Film, West Virginia State littlefilm.org), David
Committee. Historical and Cultural Archives. The four-DVD set Cleveland, Robin
Publication of the Report of Publication of book, Publication of Alan
Reel Families: A Social Memories edited by is reissued in 2005. Williams, East Anglian
the Librarian of Congress, Publication of Kattelle’s book, Home
Film Preservation 1993: A History of Amateur Film Karen Ishizuka and Unseen Cinema: Early Film Archive.
Jubilee Book, Movies: A History of the
Study of the Current State of by Patricia Zimmermann Patricia Zimmermann. American Avant-Garde
Essays on American Industry, 1897
American Film Preservation. (from a 1984 Ph.D. dis- Film shows at Moscow
amateur film by – 1979, currently selling on
Written submissions from sertation). At the AMIA International Film Festival
l’Association Amazon.com for $210 and
these archives focused on conference in Toronto and Whitney Museum
Européenne more affordably at www.
home movies: Japanese her plenary, Democracy of American Art; orga-
Inédits. homemoviehistory.com Film History: An
American National Museum, and Cinema: A History nized by Anthology Film
International Journal
Oregon Historical Society, of Amateur Film, is part Archives and Deutsches
special issue, Amateur
Northeast Historic Film. of the centennial of cin- Filmmuseum.
The Reel Thing X: Laboratory Cinema & Small-Gauge
ema series. Big as Life: An First Orphans Film Preservation Technical Symposium in LA, Film, edited by Melinda
American History Symposium at the University Toni Treadway presents Stone and Dan Streible.
New York Women in Film & Television’s of 8mm Films, Jytte of South Carolina, Saving Topaz, Cineric’s 8mm film L. Jeffrey Selznick School,
Women’s Film Preservation Fund Jensen, MoMA, Orphan Films in the Digital Age to 35mm blowup; an excerpt Rochester, NY, Dwight
The US Holocaust Memorial Publication of book, Swanson lectures students
(WFPF) first year, makes amateur film and Steve Anker, organized by Dan Streible. A of 1930s Czech home mov-
Museum in Washington, DC, Lovers of Cinema: The on small gauge and amateur
preservation grant to the Southern SF Cinematheque, screening, A Home for Home ies copied to PAL DigiBeta
opens. Raye Farr developed First American Film Avant- film and regional archives. The The Moving Image, the
Media Archive. Karen Glynn preserves 1998-2001 exhibition Movies, with Alan Berliner and and thence to 35mm; William
exhibition videos; amateur film Garde 1919-1945, by preservation school began in AMIA journal, first issue.
Emma Lytle’s Raisin’ Cotton (1938- and catalog. Péter Forgács. O’Farrell presents 9.5mm work
is part of the archival and inter- Jan-Christopher Horak in 1996; every year since 1997 Edited by Jan-Christopher
pretive record. 1941). WFPF later supports amateur including Hints, a Pathex film. Horak; two issues per year.
which he discusses earliest film preservation at NHF and the Louis an invited speaker from NHF
avant-garde filmmakers and lectures and screens amateur Many articles and reviews
Wolfson II Media History Center. www. in the later editions relate to
also the Amateur Cinema nywift.org and regional film.
League. amateur, small gauge and
regional film.