Moving image review (1988]-)

Library of Congress Report on Film Preservation Last summer the Librarian of Congress submitted Film Preservation 1993, A II Report on American Film Preservation in the Film Industry and Public/Nonprofit Organizations as pan of the development of a national film-preservation program. The national program's goals are to help coordinate public and private U activities in the field, increase awareness of the need to preserve motion pictures, and promote accessibility of films for educational purposes. The multi-volume study contains a summary report, transcriptions of u National Film Preservation Board hearings held in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, and written submissions from scores of individuals and institutions around the country. For archivists it provides insight into the expressed priorities of many of their colleagues. Note: This is a Film study — electronic media are not included. The report signals some directional changes in the field since Northeast Historic Film entered it seven years ago. For example, film-storage conditions are gaining importance, and the impermanence of safety film stock is causing more concern. A reading of the report is recommended for those interested in learning more about the present state of film preservation. From it one can learn some of the thorny issues, and discover who are individuals and institutions with interesting perspectives on the problems and possible solutions. It is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office for $47, order number 030-0000251-2. GPO Order Desk, 202 7833283 or FAX 202 5 12-2250. Three excerpts follow. Preservation is a Process In practice and in casual language, preservation has usually been synonymous with duplication. The archival rallying slogan for the last two decades has been "Nitrate Won't Wait," and the primary preservation task — still far from accomplished— has been to copy unstable, nitrate-base film without significant loss of quality onto more durable "safety" stock. For a variety of reasons, this definition of preservation is being rethought and broadened to include the costly issue of storage conditions, as well as the apparently contradictory issue of public access. Preservation is increasingly being defined less as a one time "fix" (measurable in footage copied) than as an ongoing process. Storage Conditions are Crucial Vinegar syndrome [a form of safety-film deterioration], color fading, and the retention of nitrate after copying — have conspired to give a new prominence in current preservation practice to storage conditions. The combined effect of lowered temperatures and lowered relative humidity in retarding both vinegar syndrome and color fading is startling and increasingly well documented. The one encouraging finding about these deterioration processes is how significantly both can be slowed by the right storage conditions. Towards a National Program As the over 100 submissions to this study have made clear, motion pictures have become popular memory, art form, historical document, market commodity, anthropological record, political force and medium for disseminating American culture around the world. A narrow "entertainment" definition of film no longer matches the diverse concerns of scholars, students, advocacy groups, social planners, ethnic communities, and the broader American society. To best serve the public interest, a national program must recognize the evolving applications for American film as well as current needs of users, copyright holders, and the many types of institutions throughout the United States that have motion pictures of cultural and historical significance. . . . The current level of support — a patchwork of federal money, foundation grants, and donations — only chips away at the problem. Task Forces Between now and June, task forces consisting of groups of individuals from the film industry, archives and education who participated in the film preservation study, will work on a planning document to be completed over the summer and then made available for public comment. These groups include a special funding committee from the National Film Preservation Board and task forces on Redefining Preservation, Public Access and Educational Use, Public-Private Cooperation and Public Awareness. For more information on the task forces contact Steve Leggett, National Film Preservation Board Assistant, at the Library of Congress, 202 707-5912; FAX 202 707 2371. • 30% CO M a o O 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 25% 22% 23% 17% nm HIM 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '25 '26 '27 '28 Year of Release Survival Rate of American Feature Films, based on working lists of holdings in U.S. and foreign archives Fewer than 20% of the feature films of the 1920s survive in complete form. This graph from the report, Film Preservation 1 993, makes clear why it is not surprising that Holman Day's Rider of the King Log (1921) and the Annette Kellerman Queen of the Sea (1918) are not known to exist.