Film and Videotape Preservation
According to the American Film Institute, of the more than 21,000 feature-length films produced in the United States before 1951 (when safety film replaced highly flammable nitrate stock), only half exist today." When you consider American films made pre-1929 the survival rate is about 10%. These dismal statistics concern films the world over.
This disintegration largely due to the fact that film stock and videotape are very perishable, especially videotape and color film. Eventually all moving images on these formats will disintegrate unless steps are taken to preserve these valuable and priceless artifacts of our culture. Fortunately, film preservationists and archivists all over the world are working diligently to rescue, catalog, store, and make available for research and viewing all different kinds of films and videos. Unfortunately, the cost of preserving even one color motion picture film is so prohibitive, few institutions can afford it. There are, however, organizations dedicated to the preservation of this most important piece of our cultural heritage.
Film Archive and Preservation Centers
Black Film Center/Archive
This facility's focus is on the research and preservation of film and video by and about African Americans. Based at the Indiana University in Bloomington, their extensive holdings of over 4,600 works include God's Stepchildren (Oscar Micheaux), Illusions (Julie Dash), and Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs). Additionally, they have a smattering of Blaxploitation films and publish the Black Camera newsletter.
Film Studies Center (FSC), University of Chicago
In addition to the educational, research, and exhibition needs the FSC fulfills for UC students and cinephiles in the Chicago area, they also maintain the Gerald Mast Film Archive. The archive holds over 2,250 films encompassing classic Hollywood, art film, silent film, and experimental work.
Human Studies Film Archives
(HSFA) Ethnographic and anthropological in focus, mission, and deed, HSFA has a massive collection of "orphan films" (a term coined by the Library of Congress which covers a wide range of films including non-Hollywood titles, home movies, etc.) totaling approximately 8 million feet of film and video in most all formats. The pieces include the expected documentaries, TV broadcasts, and educational works, but also a wide range of travelogues (especially on Third World countries) and outtakes (which are paired with their corresponding edited films). Also online is their "Guide to the Collections of the HSFA" which enables one to search their catalog.
The Motion Picture & Television Reading Room at The Library of Congress
(LC) The site is very detailed, with lots of acronyms but once you see the table of contents you'll have no trouble moving around. The LC's holdings are vast, "one of the largest collections of motion pictures in the world." Black Films, Melies Films, Captured Foreign Collections, Edison Laboratory Collection, and Margaret Mead Collection are just a few. Their televison holdings include NBC, PBS, various newscasts, and National Education Television Programs. Do click onto items in "Moving Image Preservation." Learn about the National Film Preservation Board (see also the separate link on this page), their Motion Picture Conservation Center, and which films have been placed onto the National Film Registry.
The Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch in the National Archives and Records and Administration
Set up as a result of The National Archives Act of 1934, this collection of over 150,000 reels of film and 20,000 videotapes concerning Federal activities is stored in state-of-the-art preservation facilities in College Park, MD. Film holdings are primarily newsreels and documentaries but also include screen magazines, as well as combat and instructional films. The video library consists mainly of Congressional proceedings and TV news. As a rule, this branch of the government houses nonfiction titles, while the Library of Congress tends to catalog fiction and entertainment.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film and Video opened the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center in Hamlin, PA in 1996. It is an ultramodern facility devoted to the preservation of cinematic art. Over 14,000 works are stored in its temperature controlled vaults. Silent-era films by Griffith, Ince, Edison, Melies, Chaplin, Keaton and Stroheim are there, as well as pieces by Hitchcock, Welles, Capra, Lang, Truffaut, Bergman, Scorcese, Cassavetes and Kubrick. Experimental film from Yvonne Rainer, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner is also there. Non-film items preserved there include movie posters, production notes, and still photographs from important films. This site is very visually dramatic and easy to move through.
Northeast Historic Film
(NHF) Bucksport, ME is the home of the NHF archive. They collect and preserve film and video made by or about New Englanders from Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Home movies, industrial films, TV from the '50s through the '90s, as well as silent and independent works are kept here. Moving Image Review, their newsletter, is available to anyone who is a member and they also have a free circulating loan collection. NHF has produced their own video titles, too: Maine's TV Time Machine, From Stump to Ship, and Woodsmen and River Drivers, etc.
Pacific Film Archive
(PFA) Through daily exhibition the PFA strives to bring the best of independent and experimental cinema, especially from Bay Area makers, to its audiences. Its 7,000+ titles also include works by Bergman, Kurosawa, Vertov and Kuchar. Interestingly, they have "the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan," alongside their collection of international animation, and Soviet silent and Eastern European film. The PFA also has a library and film study center.
Political Commercial Archive
Need a clip of Clinton campaigning for president in '92? What about Nixon back in '68? This facility collects and preserves political commercials and their holdings are impressive. According to their website they have "more than 56,000 commercials [dating] back to 1936 for radio, and to 1950 for television." The archive includes local school board, state legislature, mayoral, and Congressional spots, as well.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Film and Television Archive Along with the AFI and MoMA, the UCLA-FTA is one of the shining stars of the preservation and restoration field. Not surprisingly, its collections contain a lot of Hollywood film and TV material. Of note are the Hearst Newsreels and the local LA news broadcasts, as well as the Dorothy Arzner, film noir, and pre-Code collections they have. A way cool feature is their informative page on the difference between preservation and restoration which includes examples of before and after stills from films they have brought back from the dead. In line with their efforts they produce an annual Festival of Preservation, a showcase for the films they or their sister archives (British Film Institute, MoMA, others) have saved or collected. Their prestigious research and study center is a beacon for film-related scholarship the world over.
Television Archives
Television News Archive, Vanderbilt University
Operating as an image production service, for a fee this archive can send you any American national TV newscast, or part thereof, since August 5, 1968. Whitewater, Watergate, Nightline reports can be yours. They also produce a newsletter.