Film Preservation
In collaboration with Premiere Pictures International, Inc.
What is preservation and what is restoration?
PRESERVATION / ARCHIVAL is preservation of images / sound without manipulation. This could mean simply subjecting the best original element to highest quality long term storage conditions available. And further, funds permitting, production of best quality duplicate copies placed in highest quality long term storage conditions, which are completely separate and removed from the location of the original elements.
RESTORATION is the correction of unintended defects which exist in an available original element so as to enable a best possible reproduction of the original viewing experience.
There is still time to save our precious film heritage, but decay is catching up with these important documents of history.
What we do:
- Find specific subject matter to be preserved and made available for screening and use
- Secure funding from interested individuals, companies, or government agencies
Preservation Projects
Piero Paolo Pasolini
Funded by the J&J Arts Initiative, we are remastering the documentary film Piero Paolo Pasolini: A Filmmaker’s Life. Working with the original camera negatives that were being held in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archives for preservation, along with the original Italian soundtrack, the project will save this deteriorating film and create a new 4K digital master. Pasolini was regarded as one of Italy’s greatest intellectual figures, often misunderstood and constantly at the center of controversy.
The Ken and Jacki Widder NASA Collection
Our current project in film preservation involves the N.A.S.A. motion picture library. This includes more than 350,000 feet of 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm film tracing the development of the United States space program from 1946 through the late 1990s. The collection is not only an incredibly important piece of American History, but the history of science and human exploration.
The Ken and Jacki Widder Home Movies Collection
Home movies comprise the majority of our collection. They are rare and unique records of people, places and specific times in history. Each offers a completely first-person view into the time it was recorded, making them especially valuable as historical documents. Everyone creates home movies even today, although cell phones and digital cameras have replaced 8mm and 16mm movie cameras.
Past Film Preservation
Augustus Sassa JFK Films
With support from The National Film Preservation Foundation, we were able to preserve a newly discovered collection of JFK an RFK home movies shot by Augustus Sassa. The footage, over 40 minutes in length, offers glimpses of JFK as a personable young candidate on the presidential campaign trail, as well as footage of him years later, riding in the limousine in which he would be fatally shot. Using a wet-gate and a computer to control exposures and color correction, Film Center Laboratory made a preservation copy of the material that perfectly matches the original. The 8mm and Super 8mm originals, along with a 16mm print will go to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive in Hollywood. The 16mm color inter-negative will be deposited in The Library of Congress along with a digital screening copy. The second 16mm print as well as a digital screening copy will be deposited with The UCLA Film and Television Archives.
CAAM Memories to Light
The Center for Asian American Media has an ongoing program of finding Asian-American home movies, and transferring them to digital files so that the families can reconnect with the memories preserved there. Our foundation has supported the project through the sharing of film handling and scanning equipment, personnel, and expertise. We also acquired a rare 16mm Kodachrome color film of an Asian family living in San Francisco in 1939, celebrating Christmas and visiting the fair on Treasure Island. The film was preserved by our archivists and screened at The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in conjunction with a photo exhibit.
“Lost” Snub Pollard Comedy
The silent film era had many great comedians who never reached the level of fame achieved by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Sadly many of them are no longer remembered by the general public. Snub Pollard, was one of the better lesser-known comics. The foundation recently acquired a beautiful 16mm black and white print of one of his one-reel films, entitled “Cash Customers.” When we talked with a number of our archive partners in the USA and around the world, we learned that this might be the best surviving print of the film. With the help of Rob Byrne, Board President of the Silent Film Festival, the film has now been stabilized, corrected for speed, exposure and contrast. It is now ready for output to a new 35mm preservation negative and prints. This will assure a long life for this neglected little masterpiece of the silent screen. The preservation elements (negative and two prints) will be deposited with the Library of Congress, The UCLA Film and Television Archives, and The Academy Film Archives for long-term preservation, study and screening.