For short moment, I felt myself falling into apathy for restoration of art and also of film (scary, right?)… but then I started to contemplate what would happen if this painting from Picasso’s “Blue Period” suddenly deteriorated or faded to another color.
We’d lose light of its entire meaning.
Joshua Ranger recently touched on something very near and dear to the Self Preservation Working Group’s heart; in his words, “The Elitism of Film Preservation”:
“…despite the good work the National Film Preservation Foundation has done, their model and funding mission does not match the world of moving image collections as I experience them on the ground.
I do not see single films that require weeks of detailed work to restore them and garner front page articles in the newspaper. I see piles of U-matics and 1/2 inch open reel and miniDVs — thousands and thousands of them that need quality transfers, but are in a volume and state that would not be feasible at the same time and cost factor as a film preservation project. These are broadcast programs, interviews, field footage, news gathering, home videos, amateur image capture, production materials, and beyond. Box office doesn’t matter because there is no box office here. The auteur does not matter because these materials are more reflective of an institution or of related content produced over years and decades.It’s about the democratization and the speed that video capture enables, which also means that it’s about volume and long term impressions, not singularity and pristine objects.
Perhaps my anger is misdirected, because the frustration here is that video does not have the same foundational and federal support as film, whereas, arguably, video (and audio) is the much greater documentarian of history and culture of the past 30 years, documenting home life, political events, disasters, community, performing arts, and all degree of personal, regional, and national experiences.”
May’s installment of Self Preservation will focus on moving images and will help you learn to preserve the sort of materials Mr. Ranger is championing here. Look out for more info soon!
-jafar
(via thequasiarchivist)
Hollywood and Vine, 1963
(via palimpsestghost)
This is what people see as they commute to work in Philly.
Hollaback Philly is absolutely doing it right.100% doing it right
(via cellophaneflower)
I struggled all weekend with the idea of writing about Roger Ebert’s death. For one thing, I disdain obituaries. Reading several textbook, pre-written Ebert obits from countless media outlets was truly depressing. Then I came across rogerebert.com Editor Jim Emerson’s piece. Emerson, having…
Want to take over the official Archive.org tumblr for a week?
life:
Donald Sutherland by LIFE’s Co Rentmeester.
(Co Rentmeester—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
A LINK ROUND-UP OF TRIBUTES, FROM THE MOVING TO THE HILARIOUS
From the moment we all learned of Roger Ebert’s death yesterday afternoon, the internet has been absolutely overrun with fond remembrances and loving tributes of the man who shaped so many of our relationships with the cinema and the world it better allows us to discover. Quite frankly, I’ve never really seen anything like it, so far as deaths in the movie world are concerned, and the tidal wave of tearful goodbyes is a remarkable testament to the kind of man that Roger Ebert was, and the impact that he had on so many of our lives in so many different ways.
In fact – at this point – I feel as though the greatest contribution we here at Film.com can make to that dialogue is not to deepen it but rather to make it more accessible. So here is your guide to celebrating the life of Roger Ebert. It can hardly be considered comprehensive (indeed, only a complete archive of his reviews could be considered comprehensive), but hopefully this will at least suggest the influence and decency of the man we lost.
We will continue to update this post throughout the day.
(via the-dark-city)
Happy Birthday Gloria Swanson!
There’s always a fresh start. Remember that. Never ruminate on negative things: age, sickness, death, money trouble. No matter how old you are, act as if you are going to live forever. then life will never cease to be beautiful, challenging adventure.
-Gloria Swanson
(via the-dark-city)
