Archives

 

Bottomore, S.  (2004).  A critical view of some major libraries:  the perspective of an early cinema historian.  The Moving Image, 4/2, 86-110.

 

Stephen Bottomore is a researching historian of early film cinema and makes it a common practice to use the services of prominent film archives throughout Europe and the United States.  This extensively detailed article is his review of the archives he has frequented in his profession.  Cataloging and classification schemes are detailed.  Daily practices such as borrowing procedures, viewing availability, and patron service of each film archive are also recounted and critiqued from a very discerning patron’s viewpoint.  The film archives that are critiqued include National Library of France, Bibliotheque du Film, the British Library, the British Film Institute, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library among others.

 

Bradford, M.  (2001).  Treasures from American film archives:  50 preserved films.  Notes, 57/4, 981-983.

 

This is a review of an ambitious project put to film about the restoration of fifty films by eighteen different archives throughout the United States.  The DVD set is also a video anthology of each film in its restored state.  The National Film Preservation Foundation funded the project.  The films that were restored came from archives, libraries, and museums such as the George Eastman House and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  The films were not all feature length productions like those in the theatres.  Most of the films restored were short silent films that were in risk of deteriorating past the point of restoration.  Film titles include; Snow White (1916), Cecil B. DeMille’s The Virginian (1914), and war footage shot by John Huston in 1945 entitled The Battle of San Pietro.  The cultural and historical importance of restoring film is evident in this brief list of titles.

 

Herman, F.  (2001).  Hollywood, Nazism, and the Jews, 1933-41.  American Jewish History, 89/1, 61-89.

 

No overview of film history can merely glance over the impact of the Jewish plight during World War II.  What is less investigated is the role of the Jew in the film industry in years leading up to the war.  This article investigates the strained relationship that the Hollywood film industry had with the plight of the Jews under Nazi domination and how the filmmakers and studio moguls chose their projects carefully so as not to rose either side but definitely send an anti-Nazi message.  Three film are investigated; The House of Rothschild (1934), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), and The Sons of Liberty (1939).  I included this article in my exploration of film archives due to the immense historical nature of the Holocaust.  One could say that the very purpose of a film archive, or any archive for that matter, is to not repeat such atrocities.

 

Jones, J.  (2003).  From forgotten film to a film archive:  the curious history of From Stump to Ship.  Film History, 15, 193-202.

 

A film archive can start from the minutest occurrences in human history.  The recovery, restoration, and toured showing of a 16mm film on the life of Maine woodsmen in the 1930’s inspired such an archive.  From Stump to Ship was a documentary film created by Alfred Ames, the president of Machias Lumber Company in Maine.  Other than a recording of camp life for the woodsman, the film was also used to support Ames’ Republican bid for the governorship.  The film was rediscovered in the early 1980s, restored for historical significance to the state of Maine, and toured around the entire state for all to view.  This touring of an archived film broke the standard practice of only having the film archivists show the film in the contained archive.  The act of restoring and showing the film made a piece of regional history available to all.

 

Kendrick, J.  (2001).  What is the criterion?  The Criterion Collection as an archive of film as culture.  Journal of Film and Video, 53/2-3, 124-139.

 

The boundaries of a film archive can be particularly restrictive.  The Criterion Collection was started as an effort to provide the home viewer a film archive of his or her own.  This article explores the history, procedures, and decisions of standards that go into every release from the New York based company. 

 

Leab, D.J.  (2000).  Moving Image Archives:  past and future.  Film History, 12/2, 131-133.

 

The focus of this article is a brief recounting of the recent history of moving image archives.  What is interesting about this perspective is that the author contextualized moving image archiving with the long traditions of archiving in general that began before 2000 B.C.  The article also details web resources in the cyber-world of film archiving like the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project and the Latin American Video Archives both found on the web.

 

Loughney, P.G.  (2000).  Thomas Jefferson’s movie collection.  Film History, 12/2, 174-186.

 

Patrick Loughney heads the Moving Image Section of the Library of Congress.  His article details the history and collection of his chosen area of profession and expertise.  The collection was started in 1893 when the development of film ushered a new artistic and documentary medium.  Statistics of the current collection are given as well as the recounting of significant events in the collection’s long history.  The National Film Preservation Board is detailed with attention given to the deteriorating nature of film.  The mediums of television and radio are also given attention in this article. 

 

Lukow, G.  (2000).  Beyond ‘on-the-job’:  The education of moving image archivists-a history in progress.  Film History, 12/2, 134-147.

 

Gregory Lukow, who at the time this article was published was working on establishing one of the first graduate programs in Moving Image Archive Studies in North America at UCLA, wrote this article to detail the vast experiential knowledge that has come with the profession of a moving image archivist.  To establish the context in the struggle that any archivist faces on the job, Lukow retells his notion of the film medium’s four histories—technological, legal, industrial, and archival.  All four histories play a role in the ability to properly archive, restore, and make available old films.  He also notes the lack of institutional education offered to this new type of archivist and details various resources available online or on a campus.

 

Martin, A.L.  (2000).  No longer reinventing the wheel but creatively skinning the cat: the goals and purpose of the Association of Moving Image Archivists’ Compendium of Moving Image Cataloging Practice.  Film History, 12/2, 156-173.

 

The challenge of properly cataloging Moving Images is the focus of this article.  The author compares this challenge to the old cliché of ‘there are many ways to skin a cat.’  Many examples of different records are given to show the diverse practices of cataloging these items.  The pursuit of a common standard in machine readable records of moving image items is detailed in the article with the hope that a common awareness can lead to a common practice. 

 

Rothberg, M. & Stark, J.  (2003).  After the witness:  a report from the twentieth anniversary conference of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale.  History & Memory, 15/1, 85-96.

 

Arguably one of the most important historical film collections of the twentieth century is the subject of this article.  The effort to record on film the account of the Holocaust from actual survivors is recounted as well as the author’s perspective on the historical significance of the archive’s presence.

 

Simpson, P.  (1995).  Network Television News:  Conviction, Controversy, and a Point of View.  Franklin, TN:  Legacy Communications.

 

Paul C. Simpson wrote a book on his effort to create an archive of network television news at Vanderbilt University.  His book details the discovery that the major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were all recycling their own video taped news and not keeping an archive for themselves.  The archive started as his project to tape the three major network evening news and has now grown to the inclusion of CNN, FOX News, and special coverage on the appearance of the President or any major news impacting the United States.  The struggles over copyright between the archive and the networks are also detailed.

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