To Decasia and Back: Film Preservation Studies

Short documentary by Louise Lambert (2005) about Bill Morrison's experimental collage film Decasia (2002). You can also read David Cairn's great entry on this film for the Film Preservation Blogathon here. Further articles on this film are listed below.

Film Studies For Free is very honoured to contribute an entry to the "For the Love of Film! Film Preservation Blogathon". As FSFF readers will already know, this highly worthwhile event has been organised by greatly esteemed bloggers Self-Styled Siren and Marilyn Ferdinand (the latter of the wonderful Ferdy on Film). 

Below are embedded some entertaining and informative online videos about film preservation, and below those are some links to further, openly accessible, scholarly material about this essential but expensive art and science.

If you would like to make a donation to the Blogathon's chosen charitable recipient, the National Film Preservation Foundation (U.S.A), one of the most active and important preservers of film anywhere in the world,  please click here.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is the independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. They work directly with archives to rescue endangered films that will not survive without public support. The NFPF will give away 4 DVD sets as thank-you gifts to blogathon donors chosen in a random drawing: Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 and Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film, 1947-1986.

So you can see for yourselves the important work that the NFPF does, here's the list of films it has helped to preserve so far.

If you would like to contribute to the cause of film preservation in a country other than the U.S. you can find details of all national affiliates to the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) via FIAF's online directory here.

To access a list of all entries to the "For the Love of Film" Blogathon to date please click here. If you need further inspiration to donate or otherwise get involved in this cause, do watch Greg Ferrara's wonderful video commercial for the Blogathon at his website Cinema Styles.

A great introduction to the practicalities of film preservation (with a terrifically entertaining voiceover). It looks at the preservation of Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's 1942 film Listen to Britain at the British Film Institute archive.

 
Treasures of the Academy/"Guardians of History" Documentary Channel/Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produce an in-depth look at the importance of film preservation. John Huston's World War 2 documentaries, "Battle of San Pietro" and "Let There Be Light," which have been preserved by DOC and AMPAS, are highlighted as examples of film as living history. Featuring interviews with John Huston's son, Tony, and top directors and historians who shed considerable light on this important, exciting subject. Parts 2 & 3 below.
 
Part 2

Part 3

 
Francis Ford Coppola on Film Preservation and Technology



A sad reminder of the extreme end of celluloid's ephemerality through neglect: "Spectacular footage of 1937 Fox Film storage facility fire in Little Ferry, NJ - Digital/upload by F. Fuchs Filmed by W. Zabransky. Theda Bara and other FOX films/negatives were destroyed."

• International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) The "Journal of Film Preservation" is the Federation's main periodical publication in paper format. It offers a forum for both general and specialised discussion on all theoretical and technical aspects of moving image archival activities. Published twice a year by FIAF Brussels, each issue in paper format will be published one year later on the website. Here's the complete table of contents for the Journal between 1995 and 2008 (in other words, an index to hundreds of online and Open Access articles on this topic!) 
• Matthew Bernstein, 'Exhibition, The Film Reader (review) by Ina Rae Hark', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Eileen Bowser and Ronald S. Magliozzi, Ronald S., 'Film Archiving as a Profession: An Interview with Eileen Bowser', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Caroline Frick, an expert of film conservation, is founder and executive director of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In this [ten minute long video] interview, hosted by Luis Figueroa, she emphasizes the importance of film preservation and mentions how the growth of the film media has had a positive influence in the development of this art of conservation. 
• André Gaudreault, Jean-Marc Lamotte, Tim Barnard tr., 'Fragmentation and Segmentation in the Lumière "Animated Views"', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Karen F. Gracy, 'Documenting the process of film preservation', The Moving Image, 3.1 (2003) x, 1-41
• André Habib, 'Thinking in the Ruins: Around the Films of Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004  
• André Habib, 'Cinema from the Ruins of the Archives: Matter and Memory: A Conversation with Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Jan-Christopher Horak, 'Film history and film preservation: reconstructing the text of The joyless street (1925)', Screening the Past, November 1998
• Jan-Christopher Horak, 'Cinema 16: Documents toward a History of the Film Society (review) by Scott MacDonald and Amos Vogel', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Mary Ide and Leah Weisse, 'Developing Preservation Appraisal Criteria for a Public Broadcasting Station', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Priya Jaikumar, 'More Than Morality: The Indian Cinematograph Committee Interviews (1927)', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Claudy op den Kemp, 'Decasia: Plus belle que la beauté est la ruine de la beauté', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Jennie Saxena with contributions from Ken Weissman and James Cozart, 'Preserving African-American Cinema:The Case of The Emperor Jones (1933)', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Christel Schmidt, 'Preserving Pickford: The Mary Pickford Collection and the Library of Congress', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Donato Totaro, 'Review of This Film is Dangerous: A Celebration of Nitrate Film ed. Roger Smither, Associate editor Catherine A Surowiec. FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film), London: United Kingdom, 2002', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Donato Totaro, 'The Old Made New: the Cinematic Poetry of Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Donato Totaro, 'AMIA: The Moving Image Journal: The Association of Moving Image Archivists', Offscreen Journal, April 30, 2003
• Alison Trope, 'Review of Paolo Cherchi Usai's Death of cinema: history, cultural memory, and the digital dark age', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Patricia Rodden Zimmermann, 'Moviegoing in America (review) by Gregory A. Waller', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-5