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Executive Summary
Redefining Film Preservation is an action plan to save America's motion picture heritage. Concluding a two-part process mandated by the National Film Preservation Act of 1992, it builds from the study Film Preservation 1993, submitted to Congress last year, and presents recommendations by the Librarian of Congress and his advisory National Film Preservation Board. The plan integrates agreements by five working groups of archivists, educators, filmmakers, industry executives, and other participants in the earlier fact-finding study.
Storage. The plan singles out low-temperature, low-humidity storage as key to a balanced preservation strategy. New electronic technologies hold promise, particularly for access, but retaining film on film remains necessary for long-term preservation. To assure archival copying quality, the plan recommends creating a group to review laboratory preservation work and establishing technical guidelines.
Access. Film preservation also involves questions of private ownership and public access. To expand educational access, the plan recommends simplifying rights clearances, clarifying archival photoduplication policies, creating resource guides, and experimenting with remote delivery systems for public domain films in archives. The plan also presents options to foster the theatrical film-viewing experience. The National Film Registry Tour, which will exhibit selected Registry titles across the country beginning in 1995, will be a step toward this goal and the centerpiece of an outreach campaign.
Partnerships. Public-private cooperation is critical to the plan. Major studios have primary responsibility for preserving their products but collaboration makes sense for many areas, including restoring key titles, pooling preservation information, discussing technical issues, sharing storage costs, and repatriating "lost" American films held in foreign archives. The principal public responsibility is for "orphan" films, works without clearly defined owners or immediate commercial potential. These include newsreels, documentaries, independent films, and significant amateur footage.
Funding. Federal preservation copying grant programs, although important, lack the scope and funding to address the current problem. The plan advocates a federally chartered foundation to raise funds for the preservation of orphan films and to encourage their storage, copying, cataloging, access, and exhibition. Affiliated with the Board, the foundation would secure private partners for broad-based initiatives and be eligible to match donations with federal funds.
The Librarian of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board are committed to furthering the national preservation program and invite written comment on implementation strategies. '