February 2012
5 posts
2 tags
THEY LIED TO US IN LIBRARY SCHOOL. →
uitg:
I used to want to become a librarian so incredibly much. This article just makes me happy with the path I’ve chosen. Holy.
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Flaming Pictures: Debate on Saving Historic Films... →
bestmatedonnanoble:
suehwang:
“Is it acceptable to destroy cultural objects as if they were land mines? This is a question faced by archivists in Germany, where many of the country’s historical films were shot on explosive nitrocellulose. A bitter fight has broken out in Germany over whether the film should be preserved or destroyed.”
Wow this article…just. UGH. I’m sorry, I get really...
January 2012
20 posts
4 tags
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences study on...
chrisaldrich:
With a slight nod toward the Academy’s announcements of the Oscar nominees this morning, there’s something more interesting which they’ve recently released which hasn’t gotten nearly as much press, but portends to be much more vital in the long run.
As books enter the digital age and we watch the continued convergence of rich media like video and audio enter into e-book formats...
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“In relation to a film, a museum essentially needs to preserve, show and...”
– Alexander Horwath (in Film Curatorship: Archives, Museums and the Digital Marketplace)
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“From the postmodernist perspective, every discourse, every text, every document,...”
– Joseph Deodato, “Becoming Responsible Mediators: The Application of Postmodern Perspectives to Archival Arrangement and Description”
Academy sounds alarm about fragility of digital... →
infoneer-pulse:
On the day that Sundance kicked off and Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy, the Motion Picture Academy threw a bucket of ice water on the digital filmmaking revolution.
Preserving movies is an ongoing issue for the entire industry, but a new report from the Academy warns that movies shot or finished digitally face a lifespan so short they can be lost even before they get...
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What makes Archives and Archivists SPECIAL
suehwang:
Look what I found! A list of facts (that’s right, facts, because everything is true) explaining what makes archives and archivists special.
1. Archives have wonderful treasures – one of a kind, original documents that won’t be found anywhere else. 2. Archivists take care of Archives – and have been doing so for thousands of years. 3. The internet still mostly provides information...
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Martin Scorsese is the first name I think of...
lostarkeo:
Thank you, Mr. Scorsese. From one archivist at heart to another, thank you.
30 tags
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Scorsese talks preservation →
Martin Scorsese recently spoke with Variety’s Christy Grosz about his passion for film preservation and why it’s a vital issue for Hollywood.
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“We need to remember that the loss of over 75% of silent cinema to deterioration...”
– Martin Scorsese
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Basically I'm going insane because I still have 2...
mrbnatural6:
So I’m going to borrow some money from my mom to buy some acid free folders, and some plastiklips, and I’m going to go through all of my papers, and process my collection.
Because I’m an archives nerd, and I’m insane.
New Mexico turns 100!
mrbnatural6:
velocity1407:
congressarchives:
Today marks the 100th Anniversary of New Mexico’s statehood. In honor of this monumental anniversary, we’ve selected a number of documents to feature on our website. Check them out!
Map of New Mexico, 1908, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives
And yet some people still think I go to school in Mexico, even though NM has been a state...
December 2011
7 posts
3 tags
megalord asked: Here’s something I’ve always...
mrbnatural6:
It kind of gradually evolved. Back when I was a music ed major, I realized that the music degree was slowly killing my soul, and I was incredibly depressed for a variety of reasons, and found myself spending most of my time watching movies. When I decided to change majors, I joked that I wanted to find a job where I could get paid to watch movies all day. So I took one of those...
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Fight for 35mm - The Petition Site →
oldfilmsflicker:
oldfilmsflicker:
I work at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, California. We are a repertory double feature house that opened in 1978. We screen films from every decade of cinema - from silents to foreign, independents, art house to contemporary. Films that make-up the glorious history of the art, that should be viewed as they were meant to be - in a theater with fellow...
November 2011
2 posts
4 tags
August 2011
3 posts
Lesson for the day
mrbnatural6:
Not everyone gets as excited about nitrate film as I do. In fact, it freaks most people out.
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Oral History Society - Copyright and Ethics →
itanghal:
This guide is for people who record oral history interviews, and organisations and individuals who keep collections of oral history recordings in the United Kingdom. The Oral History Society promotes the use of oral history techniques to record the memories of those whose life stories would otherwise be lost to future generations, and encourages researchers and teachers to make use of...
July 2011
1 post
5 tags
Exclusive Interview: Torsten Kaiser, Film... →
mrbnatural6:
I’m pretty sure only super-nerds like me will like this (or even spend the time to read the whole thing), but it’s a GREAT interview with Torsten Kaiser about two restorations of one of my favorite films, M. It’s a great read, even if you’re not as into the technical aspects of film preservation as I am, because it gives you an idea of how FUCKING hard it is to do a restoration of a...
May 2011
2 posts
7 tags
So you've captured a moment on film … now what? →
mrbnatural6:
A cool little article about home movie preservation. I was really lucky in that I was able to get my family’s 8mm home movies digitized in exchange for the work I did at a film preservation company, but a lot of people aren’t as fortunate. However, it’s so important to preserve these materials, not only for their value to your family, but as a cultural artifact in itself. It’s...
wirrow: ways of seeing →
mrbnatural6:
wirrow:
when we’re born people start giving us folders, and label each one with a single word. they celebrate our first folder which is labeled with ‘dada’ or ‘mama’ or some shit like that. we then carry these folders around with us our whole life and every time we experience something that corresponds…
wirrow just made the archivist in me do a little dance. As my friend Trevor...
February 2011
2 posts
Silent films recovered: These new releases are... →
10 silent films were recently returned to the US from Russia.
“Loughney said lost films continue to surface in the most unusual places. A 1927 John Ford film, ‘Upstream,’ was recently found in New Zealand, he noted. ‘There are potentially hundreds of films out there,’ Loughney said. ‘We hear rumors of things in China.’”
I also like to refer to...
“Popular culture has played an important role in creating this crisis of memory,...”
– George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Pop Culture, pg. 12
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
2 posts
Welcome to the digital nightmare. Until the 1980s,... →
archivist:
maura:
pop historians — or, really, anyone interested in music that’s older than a month or so — should read this.
Hey! Welcome to the next three to four decades of my career! Digital impermanence and migrating data! Not trying to sound snide; I’m really glad this issue is gaining a wider audience.
November 2010
11 posts
“I’m deaccessioning him from my life’s fond.”
– (via mrbnatural6)
History is broken. Solution: put post-it notes on... →
This is a post by a fellow archives student at the University of Maryland. Check it out, comment, read, share. I think he brings up a lot of valid points not only about archives but about the legacies we leave and the histories we construct.
Edit: Link has been updated
Film preservation in Dawson City →