Moving image review (1988]-)

The Film Foundation: An Interview with Robert Rosen by Jean T. Barrett a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer and NHF member Robert Rosen is Director of the UCLA Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles. This year, he was named Chair of the Archivists Advisory Council to the Film Foundation. The Film Foundation is an alliance of eight filmmakers — President Martin Scorsese and members Woody Allen, Francis Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg — united to further the cause of film preservation. What is the state of moving image preservation as we enter the 90s? ID osen: There's good news and -*-V. there's bad news. The bad news is that there's a crisis, if you look at the scope of the preservation task, with more than one hundred million feet of unique nitrate film in the vaults of archives, plus materials that are being held by production companies. We also have vast problems to confront with film color fading, video preservation, television news preservation, as well as local materials. The good news is the producers have become increasingly conscious of the importance of preservation, because they've come to realize that their film vaults hold corporate assets, of use in a whole array of ancillary markets. Moreover, with the public, the word "preservation" has become much more favorably viewed, as a result of the high-profile restorations of such films as Napoleon, Becky Sharp and Intolerance. A third reason for optimism is the creation of the Film Foundation — the creative community taking a much more active, militant role on behalf of preserving the moving image heritage. Tell us about the Film Foundation. The goals of the Film Foundation are several. One is to serve as an intermediary between the major nitrateholding archives and the media industry, in order to get preservation work done, and in order to find the financial support for that partnership. Secondly, it will deal with general preservation issues, including color film restoration, independently produced film, and others. The Foundation also has an interest in helping to dramatize the importance of preservation by supporting high-profile public events that celebrate the completion of preservation work. What are the most urgent tasks of the Film Foundation right now? • J The initial thrust is around the •A^. area of commercially produced feature films. However, the Film Foundation's members are enthusiastic supporters of all areas of preservation, including television and local archives, and hope to work in a coordinated way with those in the field involved in many areas of preservation. How does the Film Foundation set priorities? 1) The Board of Directors members -»^. are activists; they're not just names on a letterhead. But they also know that they have to take their lead from the field. In establishing priorities, in deciding how the work will be accomplished and what standards of preservation are appropriate, they are looking toward the Archivists Advisory Council, which consists of administrators from the five major nitratepreserving archives. How will the Film Foundation be funded? Initially, much of the funding will come from the commercial film studios. But we are here to help the preservation field, not to compete with the field in looking for money. We're not out to pre-empt already existing activities, but to complement them. Do you see encouraging signs for the future of moving image preservation? TJ I am very encouraged by the J^. springing up, all across the country, of specialized archives reflecting the region, and reflecting special kinds of audiovisual materials, such as local television news. I'm also encouraged by their desire to work together, as reflected by the amazing growth of the Film and Television Archives Advisory Committee. What was a handful of institutions only a few years ago, now is nearly 100 entities that gather together for conferences. When people ask if there's an American national archive, like the Swedish Archive in Stockholm or the Soviet Archive in Moscow, the answer is that the American national archive is not in one place. It consists of a plurality of geographically dispersed and philosophically diverse organizations that work in concert and cooperation with one another. The American production of moving images is so vast that it's only by all of these organizations finding their appropriate role and working together that it will be saved. What can NHF members do to support moving image preservation? ~n The members can do the most for J^^. preservation by taking on the preservation of the products made in their region, because if they don't, no one else will! • Qoing to the Movies continued from page 1 Gomery and Gunning are joined by project scholars Robert Branham, who teaches film at Bates College; Kevin Hagopian, University of Wisconsin PhD candidate in film and history; Juris Ubans, professor of art at the University of Southern Maine; and Glenn Uminowicz, executive director of the Victoria Society of Maine. Free Audience Guide An audience guide including essays by the scholars and by accompanist Danny Patt will be distributed free of charge at the screenings. • Page 3