AMIA Student Chapter at UCLA

Extension of the Machine:L.A. Filmforum at the Cinefamily

2012-01-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

For the last two Saturdays, I have been lucky enough to witness the magic that is the L.A. Filmforum. They have had presentations at the Cinefamily over on Fairfax, complete with guests and Q&As, and what has been accomplished there is like nothing else I have ever seen.

I have always had a difficult time with experimental film to an extent, but I always enjoyed it because it also caused me to push myself and question my ideas of cinematic boundaries and narrative, of art, and certainly of form and function. I have learned (and come to believe) that exposing yourself to more things that make you think in this manner only makes you a more full person in the cinematic realm. You still may not enjoy everything you see, but MAN! Some things will knock your socks off. And for me, the L.A. Filmforum is the kind of place where I will continue to engage in that kind of experience.

The series that L.A. Filmforum is currently running, Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980 is not to be missed. It's part of the larger Pacific Standard Time project, as well, which is pretty fabulous. I have now been to two of them, and I am really hoping to go to as many as I can. What they are doing with this is incredible. In fact, what the Filmforum is doing in general, is incredible. If you have a few minutes, I would highly suggest going over and checking out the Alternative Projections website. The oral histories area alone is worth it. That's an area I'm going to continue checking back on. What an incredible archive and site!

A Native Observes: Los Angeles Observed, January 21, 2012, Cinefamily

On Saturday January 21st, I was lucky enough to witness some of the most amazing films about Los Angeles in documentary and experimental form. Being a Los Angeles native, this was like being a kid in a candy story. When I watched Muscle Beach (1948, 35mm, sound, 9m) by Joseph Strick and Irving Lerner, I was astounded. Santa Monica (and the pier) has changed so very little physically in the last 60+ years (ok, a great deal socially, but that's another story!) and the Academy Film Archive did such a beautiful job of restoring this print! My jaw was agape and yet I was grinning ear-to-ear (if that is a physical possibility).

Experiencing Bunker Hill (1956, 16mm, sound, 18m) by Kent McKenzie was difficult. I'm not going to lie. My mother has told me stories of what downtown used to look like and be like and I'm a big fan of writers like John Fante and such. Out of all the movies that I saw in 2011, made in 2011, Bunker Hill effected me the most. I sat in that little theater on Fairfax and I cried. It's extremely effective, beautiful and contains a horrifying amount of foreknowledge about what the city will grow to be in only a short number of years and yet what it could have been.

(L-R, John Vicario, Thom Anderson, Mark Toscano and Baylis Glascock)

We were lucky enough to get to see Shopper's Market (1963, 16mm, color, sound, 22m) by John Vicario, who was also there for a Q&A, as well as Olivia's Place (1966/74, 16mm, color, sound, 6m) by Thom Anderson (known in many circles for the absolutely incredible film-essay, Los Angeles Plays Itself), also there for the Q&A, as was Baylis Glascock, who had shown his film Film Exercise Number One (1962, 16mm, color, sound, 5m).

The Q&A was wonderful. These men were led in discussion by Mark Toscano, one of the fabulous curators of Alternative Projections (along with the illustrious Adam Hyman), and it was a really wonderful day. Getting to see films like this on a big screen, the way that they were intended to be seen, in their original formats is priceless. And, beyond that, the fact that we were able to have the actual filmmakers there?!?! Unbelievably cool.

Something About the Optical Printer: Visions, Memory, and a Machine: Optical Manipulations, January, 28, 2012, Cinefamily

The next Saturday, I traipsed over to the Cinefamily and joined one my pals in my cohort, Jon, at the Cinefamily for this event. During our first few weeks at UCLA we had been introduced to the wonders of the optical printer, so we were pretty excited to see what it was all about. Jon did a superb job describing what we saw and experienced, so I'm just going to let him tell you what it was in his words....over to you, Jon!

----On January 28, as part of Los Angeles' massive PacificStandard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980 program, the LA FilmForum and Cinefamilypresented Visions, Memory and a Machine: Optical Manipulations, a showcase ofavant-garde films created with the use of an optical printer, at the SilentMovie Theater. Along with the opportunity to see these rare experimentalshorts, ranging from 1968 to 1982, two Los Angeles filmmakers whose films wereamong the highlights of the program, Pat O'Neill and Beth Block, participatedin a question and answer session following the screening.

Saugus Series, 1974- Pat O'Neill

The two films in the program by Pat O'Neill, SaugusSeries (1974) and Foregrounds (1978), offer sterling examples of themany possibilities for filmmaking with an optical printer. Utilizing the machine'sability to rephotograph images onto a single frame, often resulting in multiplelayers of various film elements appearing onscreen all at once, O'Neillincorporates animation, cut-outs, globs of paint, found footage,perpetually-spinning rocks and multicolored silhouettes of running dogs intounique and unpredictable collages of sound and vision. Beth Block'scontribution, Film Achers (1976), was less varied in the amount of filmmaterials on display, but her repetition of washed-out semi-decipherablefigures eventually revealed itself to be a breathtaking psychotic breakdown ofthe filmmaking process, whose jaggedly-edited soundtrack turned Peter Pan's “IWon't Grow Up” into a sort of proto-techno. (Hell, you could probably make agood case for calling these films cinematic dubsteb.)

Film Achers, 1976- Beth Block

Although the focus of the program was on the use of theoptical printer in avant-garde film, the program also served as a greatdemonstration as to why the process was so prominent in the Hollywood specialeffects industry before the days of digital. Beyond his experimental work,O'Neill has worked in the effects department for Piranha, Tank Girl,and, um, Mannequin: On the Move. O'Neill's innovations with the opticalprinter also found their way into the original Star Wars trilogy, withO'Neill protégé Adam Beckett serving in George Lucas' effects department.Beckett's film in the Optical Manipulations series, Heavy-Light (1973),belongs in the same category as the trippiest segments of 2001: A SpaceOdyssey (another example of optical printing technology put to great use),a dizzying array of patterns and colors that is almost impossible to believewas made without the aid of computers. Also fitting into a semi-sci-fi theme,the program closed on the nuttiest film of the series, Daina Krumin's Babobilicons(1982), featuring conic crab creatures wreaking havoc on birthday cakes andmore phallic mushrooms than you can shake a dick at. Those were just some ofthe many unforgettable images the program provided, and as a whole, the LAFilmForum and Cinefamily did an excellent job in presenting how one machineallowed an imaginative group of filmmakers in Los Angeles realize their bizarreand delightful visions. ---Jon Marquis

Babobilicons, 1982, Daina Krumin

As Jon so beautifully stated above, the visuals on this were beyond amazing. It was a pleasure to experience. By the time Mark stood up with Beth Block and Pat O'Neill for the Q&A, I think we were simply in awe that you could do such amazing things with this equipment, but you could!
During the Q&A, they waxed on about artistic dedication and intensity. Sometimes, they said, this incurred physical deterioration! Some artists stayed in animation and projection rooms long enough to bloody their hands and punch walls hard enough to be heard in the next room over! But the product? Well worth it, many times. Even the "happy accidents."
Pat O'Neill noted that his intent was really to "replicate a state of mind I had when I was making something" in his work. In watching his art, I believe he was successful. He also noted that he would've been quite pleased to have his shots as "entities with no relation" and would have been quite interested in showing them as single pieces in a gallery. I, for one, would have definitely gone to that show (and dragged many friends!).
O'Neill was really interested in playing with the image itself and what could be done with it, although he says that it is sadly virtually impossible to do optical printing now, due to the shrinking of the analogue equipment world.

(L-R, Beth Block, Pat O'Neill and Mark Toscano)

Beth Block came out from Kent State to study with Pat, she stated. She used "2 bolexes and a board!"

Her perspective within the optical printing procedure was that the pain of the machine was that it was completely and totally worth it because "you couldn't get the image any other way." She also made a very interesting comment about the state of the analogue/digital art world right now, in that she is not limiting herself to a simply analogue pallet.

Beth said that you can learn to drive yourself crazy digitally just as much as you could on a machine that lacked the ability to have a multi-pass option! Beth notes, "You can learn to get to that who am I/what I am-torture state in digital too, it's just a number state."

Of the optical printer, she said that working with it was like being "an extension of the machine. There was an intense concentration. There's just something about an optical printer!"

And Beth was right. There is something about an optical printer. Both in the creation and being created by. In watching these films, you get a real sense of the manipulation of the materials, a thing that does not occur very often anymore and certain one that happens less physically in this highly digitally-dominated world. To get to experience this live and with the filmmakers in-person was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we would REALLY like to thank L.A. Filmforum and Cinefamily for making this possible. It was amazing.

See you next screening!

I Left My (AMIA Conference) Heart in Texas

2012-01-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

So shall we talk Austin?
Yeah, whatta place. Am I right?
For those of you who have visited, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you who have yet to go...Good golly, Miss Molly! Do it!

Oh fried pickles, why can't I quit you?

After that trip I had to change my Facebook status to being "in a relationship" with fried pickles and the Alamo Drafthouse, and it's complicated!

In any case, Austin was great. Not just the food and movie theaters, but the conference, the people, and all the standard things I've come to be so familiar with at annual events like The Reel Thing and the AMIA Conference. The first AMIA Conference I went to was 2 years ago in Philadelphia, and I was a kid in a candystore. Metadata, restoration, historical preservation, oh my! It was (to me) the Yellow Brick Road of the moving image archive world that I was so interested in getting involved in. I met the most exciting and wonderful people! I only found out afterwards that most of them weren't just exciting and wonderful, but had done extremely important work, too! SO COOL! Yeah, the AMIA Conference is not unlike going to a big rockstar convention in many ways. Sit down for dinner with someone, and by the time you get your salad you've already heard about some brilliant collection that they have managed to save or some perspective on information structures that you've never even considered. The AMIA Conference is like that for the whole time.
So, plant that in Austin? A town I already had familiarity with due to the Drafthouse and their print preservation and exhibition work? SOLD.

So I rolled in the night before the conference started, checked into my hotel and met up with another one of the fabulous UCLA MIAS students that was attending the conference. We had some food at a place that had been recommended to me, and made our way home, excitedly discussing what our plans were for the next few days. You could truly cut the anticipation with a knife!
The next morning, we found our way to the main hotel, grabbed some coffee, and checked in. It was cool! We got our AMIA bags full of goodies, schedules, name badges, and we were good to go!
We then boarded the bus with an assortment of other individuals, and made our way to our first "feature": The Reel Thing, Austin.

First of all, I was so excited to finally get a chance to go to the Alamo Drafthouse. I'd been hearing about this place forever and finally was able to go and be there!! Second of all, it was The Reel Thing. Last year, in Philadelphia, I had missed The Reel Thing as I had taken the metadata course and the times conflicted. But this year, no conflicts! And I have always had a really amazing time at The Reel Thing. Not only is it educational, but the speakers are entertaining, each topic is usually really fascinating (whether I understand all of the issues presented or not), and I know what I learn will be useful later on (which it has been). So, needless to say, I was really excited.

This time, we had a slew of discussions ranging from Robert Heiber of Chace Audio's discussion of early sound problems like chemical sound fade on nitrate and new tools in sound restoration to the presentation by Anne Gant (EYE Film Institute Netherlands) and Heather Linville (Academy Film Archive) on the internationally-done restoration of Nicholas Ray's film We Can't Go Home Again (1973). Other impressive talks were given by David Pierce, Jon Polito and a multitude of others, but...realistically? EVERY presentation at The Reel Thing was great. This entire piece could be solely on The Reel Thing.

The Reel Thing ended, and we all went back to the main hotel where we had the Opening Night Cocktail event, always full of great people to meet and see again, always a great time. But I had to watch the clock. Couldn't get too comfortable there! I had some important TRIVIA to be throwing down!
So I wrapped up my conversations with new and old friends alike, and made it up to the top floor, where I registered and checked in my team and waited for the remainder of the others who were hurrying from the airport in order to make it there in time!

And they did! So we participated in Trivia Night and it was fun, as always. Our team, made primarily of UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies folk, went under the name Nitrate Ninjas! We won for best cheer, but...unfortunately, we sorta failed on the other levels. But we had fun which was what really mattered. Trivia Night is unbeatable. Lots of laughs, lots of frustration, lots of arcane bizarre knowledge shared...good times.

Then I was off to the event I had been drooling over since I had seen it announced: Reels of Steel. This was an event where everyone was to bring in their most rare and/or bizarre and interesting pieces to compete in a competition to see who would win! I was especially looking forward to this, as moving image archivists have more access than anyone else to the odd, strange and exceptionally AWESOME things I love to see. Let me just say right now: I was not disappointed.

A late-night event, Reels of Steel was really worth it, regardless. Fun beyond measure!

Reels of Steel was hosted by one, Lars Nilsen, from the Alamo Drafthouse. I had met him at a previous point when the Drafthouse guys had come to Los Angeles and presented some films at the New Beverly Cinema, so I was excited. After a short presentation and the display of the trophy (an amazing gold necklace with a spinning disc in the center! Totally Run DMC-style!), we got started.
Wow. There was so much that I saw. Stephen Parr from Oddball Film in San Francisco showed a piece with Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga. Marc Toscano brought this crazy little educational film called The Electrolysis of Brine from 1965 and had totally altered it in the best way. Doug McClaren tied together a bunch of really fun trailers ranging from Skatetown U.S.A to Can't Stop the Music. Sean Savage brought a bit of Phyllis Diller into our evening (and who doesn't need a crazy cooking piece starring Phyllis Diller at 1:00am?). My personal favorite, however, was the one that was brought in by the incomparable Skip Elsheimer of A/V Geeks. He presented one of the strangest and best things I've ever seen in my life. It was called Humanoid and it was some sort of old advertisement for a kitchen appliance, only...it was really really creepy. I LOVED IT. In any case, Doug won the final battle, and took home the necklace, after which we all left and passed out. What a first day!

The next day, I was unsure what I wanted to attend first, there were so many amazing panels! First off, I went to the Newcomer's Mixer, which was a great deal of fun. The Newcomer's Mixer is a really great event that pairs up experienced (or, in my case, semi-experienced) conference attendees with new ones, and they get to "mix," so to speak. I wish that I had gone last year, but I was new so I was so unaware of everything going on around me that it was all a little overwhelming. But this year it ended up being extremely rewarding and loads of fun.
Post-mixer, I headed off to the BFI panel called "Hierarchical Datastructure and Fully Integrated Workflows in BFI's New CID System." As someone who is really interested in databases, data entry and record keeping, this was very much the right seminar for me. I was able to learn quite a bit about the way that they have been doing things in the UK, and how they are seeking to standardize them at this juncture. It was truly fascinating. I was squirming in my seat. I love that junk!

Next up, I went to the panel on Archive and the Commons. THIS panel made me more goofy than the first one! I'm so into the Open Source thing and learning more about it that this took cool to a whole new level. They discussed how web standards are largely closed, but their take is not. Dealing with things like the Internet Archive and Open Video Alliance the topics ranged from using people to harness collective intelligence and the concept of a volunteer effort for subtitling (which blew my mind) to the evolution of rights and open access models. Panels such as this make me grin and know I'm in the right field.

Between Ben Moskowitz, Peter Kaufman and Rick Prelinger, I could've listened to them talk for ages. But there were more panels!

I saw a fantastic discussion on the digitization of Texas-related films for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and learned much about their access models.

I went to a panel on Orphan Films, and saw what a challenging situation it can be to have your archive tied down to a governmental system that has a constantly changing administration and does not believe in your vision. That panel was unique and quite fascinating. To say that it was inspirational would not be an understatement. The work that Audrey Young is doing for the Cineteca National Mexico is not only the first work of its kind, but it is work that defies not only bureaucracy but also politically-charged attempts to keep an archive like this from existing and flourishing.

Sadly, I had to leave the Orphans panel early, as I had to hurry down to the restaurant so as to be there on time for our event with the New York Student Chapter of AMIA. The event that I titled "East Meets West" took place at a quaint little location with a decent happy hour and great food. It was exceptionally successful and I really hope that we can make it just as good (if not better) next year! The great part (aside from getting to hang out with all the other students from the other side of the country, which totally rocked!) was that there were some local students who showed up to the event. I'm still unclear as to how they had heard about it, but they were unable to afford to go to AMIA, as they were going to ALA conferences and SAA conferences, but they didn't want to miss out on a chance to meet other moving image archive students. We all thought this was simply fabulous.

Generations of AMIA Student Chapter Presidents! L-R current pres. Ariel Schudson (me!), Stephanie Sapienza (pres. 2007-2008) and Meredith Reese (pres. 2008-2009 and current AMIA student chapter liason)

As that wrapped up, we rushed off to the glorious Paramount Theater, as it was time for the always-delightful AMIA Archival Screening Night. Last year's archival screening night left me in awe of the field. The things that I saw were...so cool! My brain was buzzing. I was a-glow. I was completely unaware of the extent to which moving image archiving went to. The archival screening night was instrumental in changing that. Needless to say, I was truly looking forward to it this year!

There were a little over 20 entries total in this year's screening night, ranging from silent work and montages about pinball to Alice Cooper and drag queen remakes of Psycho. Once again, I will say, without hesitation, the AMIA Archival Screening Night is one of the best and most fun nights of cinema you'll get. Half of the fun, however, is also knowing that these pieces are in an archive and being preserved in some manner. Many of these items are things that might have gotten lost, forgotten about, ignored. Being able to witness something as amazing as the film that Kristin Pepe submitted, Mona's Candle Light, about a lesbian bar in San Francisco in 1950, complete with a well-known drag king, is a real treat.

The next day was just as exciting as the first. There is always so many things to talk about at these conferences it is hard to make it concise! The first panel I went to was one that involved the 16mm nitrate films at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, as presented by Sabrina Negri as well as an excellent presentation on the Zapruder footage by Iwonka Swenson (National Geographic Television) and Dan Sullivan (Image Trends). The real coup for me on that panel, however, was the portion that was presented by Cassie Blake from the Academy Film Archive about the SabuCat Trailer Collection. I can't lie. I'm a sucker for trailers. And I've had many a discussion on the ways that trailers have evolved over the years and I think they are absolute treasures to our moving image archive world. Seeing Cassie's work (and Jeff Joseph's work before her) was truly legendary. I was moved, excited and thrilled. Even better? We got to see a fantastic trailer reel that included things like Lady in a Cage (1964) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)!

Directly after that was the AMIA Awards and Scholars Luncheon which was quite lovely. The food was nice, the company (as always) was great and I had a chance to reconnect with a few women I hadn't seen since Philadelphia last year. Plus, the chair of our Moving Image Archive Studies program, Jonathan Furner was there with us for the lunch, so that was fun too!

Flawed Projectors!!!

Post-lunch, there was still more learning fun-and-games to be had. I went to another panel on the BFI and the building of their collection, after which point I went to the most insane panel of the whole day: Fatally Flawed Formats.
Chaired by Snowden Becker, the speakers were Dino Everett (Hugh Hefner Moving Image Archive), Tom Aschenbach (Colorlab), and Devin and Marsha Orgeron (The Moving Image and North Carolina State University). It was a fabulous panel. Each of the individuals presented issues of cinema that people had thought would work, but did not. How long each of the formats lasted...that was also fascinating.
The first format, Stereo Bolex, [presented by Aschenbach, had its general 3D flaws (eye-strain, focal plain problems, light loss) but it had deeper ones of no parallax correction, it used the smaller part of the 16mm frame with severe light fall-off, and had a very specialized lens and screen. On the other hand, as Aschenbach discussed, it also made some headway. It was the 1st available 3D format for amateur filmmakers, it had decent rendering, and it had some longevity.


Stereo Bolex camera

The next format Dino said would beat everyone else's format in the "fatally flawed" category. The Pathe Monaco Camera was a practice in futility, frustration and, ultimately, obsolescence. The camera sold whopping less than 100 in total. It was released in June of 1956...and ended in December of 1956. And Dino actually has one. Even better?? I got to see stuff projected on it!!!
OK, so what's the big deal on this camera? Why is it so problematic? OK, so first of all, it's a small, small gauge. Not just small, it's tiny. This is 4.75mm. It's the smallest consumer invented. It has a lens for 9.5mm, but then you would have to turn the entire machine on its side and...you would end up scratching the film. That would be the first really fatal flaw.
Other big time problems associated with this are that the film falls off the reel continually. Not only that, but the film itself is dense, it relies on tension (not sprockets), and it had to be watched the entire time. While the system was probably, for all intents and purposes, intended to be for home use, it was still completely inadequate and totally, completely, unarguably flawed. However, it was soooo much fun to watch work!


Only 100 in existence, and I got to see one of 'em do its thang! I got lucky in Austin, yo!

After the final presentation on Kodacolor (also super exciting! Really want to look into the Bigelow Film Collection!), it was time for the Education Committee Meeting, which I think went really well. It was my first in a series of many communications with the committee, I hope, and I think it will be fruitful. I believe very much that moving image archive studies is important more now than ever, and that meeting was a good establishment for us to move forward.
After that, we had a lovely dinner together at Threadgill's, where I was able to meet some amazing people who had been at the education committee meeting and chat with them on a more intimate level.
I truly love the AMIA conference for nights and activities like that where we just get to hang out, have some great food, talk about film, databases, the future of moving image archiving and, perhaps, just random subject matter! Having fun with like-minds is totally priority at AMIA conferences. Luckily for me, it's the one place I really feel like I am able to do so. It's like Disneyland!

After dinner, I nipped off to one of the cool night events that AMIA had arranged! Film projected on fog by the lake! Remember that Phyllis Diller thing from Archival Screening Night?? It looked great on fog.

Bat Educational film- reminiscent of the bat that flew into the Paramount Theater during the Archival Screening night...

After I hung out with the fog and the films, I returned to the lounge at the hotel and reconnected with an old pal that I had spent time with last year in Philadelphia. He introduced me to some women that he was hanging out with, and we all sat around for an hour or two, had a drink, relaxed, talked, and it was one of the nicest evenings ever. Intelligent conversation about archiving, art, history and technology. Relaxation. Laughter. Could I have asked for more? This is why I love the AMIA conference!

The next day I was volunteering, so I didn't get to take many notes, but the rooms I was placed in were brilliant. The first one was about the American Archive Content Inventory Project.If you have not checked this out, I highly advise you do so immediately. Some of the most incredibly women in our field have been working on it and were there at the conference speaking to it, and it was a pretty incredible experience. I was rather bummed that I couldn't take notes, but...there's always next year!

The next panel I was at was a discussion about access to family collections chaired by Melissa Dollman, but led by Ned Thanhauser, Kim Stanton and Rick Prelinger. Once again, ideas of access, funding and online archiving came to the forefront, all of which I found not only interesting but personally utilitarian.

The final panel I volunteered for was one I was very thrilled for. The panel included Tim League from American Genre Film Archive (and the Alamo Drafthouse), Skip Elsheimer from A/V Geeks, Stephen Parr from Oddball Film and Walter Forsberg from NYU. All the presentations were absolutely marvelous! The title of the session was Really, What Are You Going to Do With That?: Preservation Perspectives on Unconventional Moving (and Not Moving) Images
The professionalism of each individual was delightful and the discussion of their archives and/or their specialty areas was fascinating. My interests do tend to lie in alternative areas, so I am aware of much of the work of these folks to an extent. However, the presentations themselves were not only enlightening but also furthered my knowledge of how their work fits in with the larger picture of the archiving world, an extreme crucial feature that I know that not everyone has considered. Much of the work that Tim League has accomplished with the American Genre Film Archive is quite specifically tied to 35mm, something that is in a very sticky place right now. That said, if you speak to him, that archive is exceptionally well-organized and doing quite well.

American Genre Film Archive

Indeed, there is a sense amongst all of these archives that the elements within their vaults may run a tendency towards the obsolete (or what is sadly becoming obsolete) at times. What concerns me about this is that I don't want to see the pieces described within this session go to dust. My dream would be to make sure they get funded for preservation, even if it is simply within their own archive. While the titles or subject matter of the "unconventional" may seem, well, unseemly at times, we should also remember that home movies were not always the "in" thing and neither were orphan films. I will champion the unconventional archives like American Film Genre Archive and Eyeball, etc., because they will provide us with the same social resonance that the orphan films and home movies do, simply in a fictional capacity. *steps down off soap box*

Finally, I attended the general membership meeting this year, because I swore to Wendy Shay up and down last year that I would. It was actually pretty cool. Learned a bunch of things about AMIA, got updated on what's going on, had a soda, and then scooted off to the final closing night cocktails (awwww!).

We had a great time connecting with people in the final cocktail hour (albeit hurried), and handing out the final slew of cards. My compatriot and myself socialized to the best of our exhausted abilities, after which we needed food. Actually, we needed BBQ (well, I needed BBQ, I think she was being nice. She's an exceptional individual. I am lucky to call her friend). So off to BBQ we went! And seeing as we were in Austin, it was damn good! After the BBQ, we both realized that we hadn't taken Austin up on her local music scene, so we did a bit of that as well, and went and saw a band at a bar that we had been recommended to. It was really great! Great music, great people, so very un-L.A.

Holy archives, Batman! LBJ-irific!

We had plans to go to the LBJ Library early the next morning, but we slept a bit late, and she had to leave for her flight early, so we didn't end up going together. I did end up going, and BOY HOWDY. Wanna talk archives?? And an animatronic LBJ and history and...just so very much. But I have yet to have anyone in their right mind explain to me how Los Angeles, a city full of so very many taquerias, does not have the incredible invention that is known as the BREAKFAST TACO.

And if we do have somewhere that serves them, why has no one bothered to tell me where this place is? These things are pure, unadulterated magic. Much like the fried pickles. And close to the Jackalope which seems to run rampant throughout Austin and served as my dinner companion just before I left for the airport.

There are secrets in them thar' hills, I tells ye, there are secrets! Fried pickles, jackalopes, breakfast tacos, beautiful theaters that screen 35mm prints and serve you drinks and delicious food...Is Austin Shangri-La? Will I be able to find my way back? Do I want to do so? Once there, would I be allowed to leave? Is it my Lost Horizon? It may be too soon to tell, but what I can say is that the AMIA Conference of 2011 sure gave me a decent taste, and if I wanted to give it a shot...I would give it my all to go back for more!

-Ariel

Of New Friends, Wisconsin-ites, and Archivist Responsibilities...

2012-01-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

Oh dear. It has been a while, hasn't it? But that's ok. They say that the best friends can go limitless amounts of time without speaking and upon reunion it is like they were never apart. I'm hoping that we can look at this like that, because BOY do we have some exciting stuff to talk about!
First thing's first: we're already one quarter into the 2011-2012 year, but we're making some progress on getting some things together. During the latter half of last quarter there was an election for a new AMIA board, and it was really really close. Some amazing candidates ran, and it was a tense week or so while the final tally was made. In the end, we have a new cabinet and it is as follows:

Ariel Schudson: President
Jade Takahashi: Vice President
Jovita Dominguez: Secretary
Brendan Lucas: Treasurer

At the end of last quarter, just as finals were gearing up, we met very briefly to discuss what we were considering doing for this quarter and beyond. We have some fantastic ideas, and I'm really excited about all the energy that we've got going!
In addition, we had a very successful trip to the AMIA Conference in Austin, TX, where we met up with the NYU Moving Image Archiving Program (MIAP) and had the first of what (I hope) will be an annual occurrence- the "East Meets West" social/happy hour function. I'll be covering that more thoroughly in my post about the AMIA Conference (keep those eyes peeled for that! Should be coming up soon!), but suffice to say that it was so much fun to get together with other students from other moving image preservation programs and just geek out over films and mutual adoration for cataloguing, restoration and Ryan Gosling. Oh...maybe that was just the conversations I was having. Hrm. In any case, I just can't wait to do it again next year! What a thrill!

But, as they say, that was then, this is now. We'll catch up on Austin's magic later. What we really need to chat about is all the crazy cool stuff that's going on this upcoming quarter!! So get your Google calenders ready, Cats and Kittens, this one's gonna be a doozy!

So sadly I didn't make it to the opening night (tonight), but as of this evening, the spotlight on Spencer Tracy at the Billy Wilder theater called Spencer Tracy: That Natural Thing began. This will be running until March 30, but trust me- you don't want to wait until the last minute to attend this. The entire festival features a veritable plethora of treats from this Wisconsin-born actor. Most of these films are rarely screened (if ever) and take it from me, a big Tracy fan, they're damn fine films. When I saw this pop up on the calender and then saw what was being shown? Woah, nelly. I went all weak in the knees. So you should check it out. I'll be there, no doubt. And if you see me, c'mon over and say hi!

Ok, so last quarter I had a class on Wednesday nights and while I adored the class to no end, I was a little sad. Why was I sad? Well, I couldn't attend the Wednesday night screening series that the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Million Dollar Theater had been putting on. The one that broke my heart the worst was the night that I missed the double feature of The Fly (1986) and Videodrome (1983) by David Cronenberg. However, this quarter I have a Wednesday class but it only goes until 5:30 or so. I CAN TOTALLY MAKE THESE SCREENINGS!! And so should you! They're playing great stuff. A Sam Fuller double on the 18th, The Big Combo (1955) and Pitstop (1948) on February 8th. A William Castle double on February 29th?? REALLY?? I'm going outta my mind here. And if you haven't been to the Million Dollar Theater, you really should do yourself a favor and go. It's not only the locale of these fantastic films, but a piece of Los Angeles history and truly gorgeous.

In addition to these UCLA events, let's not forget that we are really lucky in that we have the best local film theaters in the country. I've been to New York, and they've got some truly wonderful things there. But I have it on good authority from friends that have lived in both places that we have better events and screenings on a more regular basis. I know that school is very taxing and stressful and it's often much easier to stay at home and watch Netflix or Hulu or a DVD, but this is really where I do have a vested interest. I watched multiple theaters disappear within the last few months in Los Angeles. Not just close temporarily, but shut down for good. This was not due to the analog/digital argument or anything of that ilk, it was due to poor attendance. Part of our jobs as archivists, cinefiles and film preservationists is to make sure that theaters stick around. We are responsible for moving image history in all its forms. Sometimes that just means going to the movies. So buy a ticket to the New Beverly; make a trip to the Cinefamily; take your date to the Egyptian aka American Cinematheque. It'll be worth it. I promise.

To sum it all up, we have some super exciting film stuff coming up and I promise: we won't be shy about updating this anymore. We also now have a Twitter, in case you didn't notice, so you should feel free to add us and we'll add you back! You can find us @AMIAatUCLA.
Ideally, we'll be updating that at least once a day with something fun and interesting about the awesome world of archiving and restoration. It may simply be links or random things we've learned in class, but hey- what else are social networks for but the dispersal of unique and sometimes odd bits of information, right?
In any case, I sincerely hope that you are looking forward to this quarter and everything it's going to bring as much as I am. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
As they say, ain't nothin' to it but to do it. Shall we get this show on the road?

-Ariel

Warners Rarities

2010-07-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

Between the Los Angeles Film Festival, Outfest, and the usual hijinks at the New Bev and Silent Movie Theatre, these summer months suffer no shortage of cool screenings for Angelenos. But the screenings that most pique this film buff's interest are in UCLA's upcoming series devoted to rarities from the Warner Brothers vaults. Most of these films have been recently released through the Warners Archive DVD collection, but this series represents a chance to see some genuinely uncommon titles on the big screen. The series starts this Friday with the silent When a Man Loves, preceded by several shorts and introduced by archival rock star Bob Gitt. I myself have only seen a few of the nineteen titles featured, but can recommend two playing this weekend. Wonder Bar, playing with Fog Over Frisco Saturday night, boasts Busby Berkeley numbers and a once-in-a-lifetime cast including Al Jolson, Dick Powell, and Dolores Del Rio. On Sunday night, Four Daughters is a film I can't praise enough. Take Claude Rains as a small town patriarch, a quartet of sweet Warners ingenues as his musical progeny, add the genetically bitter John Garfield and light touch Frank McHugh for flavor; the result is melodramatic magic. Yeah, that last sentence sounds cheesy, but really, the movie is amazing. Almost all of the pictures in the series are presented as double features and all can be seen at the Billy Wilder Theater. Click here for more information.

How Did Archivists Survive Before the Internet?

2010-03-19T01:46:00.001-07:00

Today I was working on a short musical reel that had no credits and a multitude of broken sprockets. Unable to view the film to hear the song, I had only the visual clues. My fellow coworkers and I were able to come up with the description that the film notably had Cab Calloway in a top hat. Using just "Cab Calloway Top Hat" I was able to find information to identify the film. With the title of the piece, I was able to find a clip of the film on Daily Motion:

Cab Calloway-Blow Top Blues
Uploaded by redhotjazz. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Thanks to keywords, within minutes I was able to locate the name of Cab Calloway's 1945 film, Blowtop Blues.

Google Books also has a copy of the Billboard that lists the films it was released with:

The Billboard Nov. 24, 1945

I have much respect for early film archivists who did not have archival resources available at the touch of a button and I am very appreciative of all the digitized materials out there.

-Trisha Lendo

Blogging For the Love of FIlm

2010-02-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Here at UCLA we are all excited for the Film Preservation Blog-a-thon because it combines our love of film preservation with our love of the Internet. This blog-a-thon was created by bloggers Ferdy on Films and The Self Styled Siren to promote film preservation via the blogasphere. For one week, cinefile bloggers will be writing on film preservation in order to raise awareness about the National Film Preservation Fund. We can't stress enough how important it is to donate to the National Film Preservation Fund in order to support the great work they do to preserve our film heritage. To donate and learn more go to the NFPF's web-page.

For our contribution we were inspired by our classmate Roger's recent blog entry about our chosen field. So here they are, 3 takes on film preservation from the perspective of current students about to enter the field:

Thinking Small
As I think about preservation- what it is, what it could be- something that completely excites me is the potential for performing preservation on an individual basis, not at a huge archive or some fancy film lab, but right on a kitchen table. Preserving one's own "stuff" can be as meaningful to the individual as the preservation of a film by some famous director is to Cinema History overall. When we talk about heritage, we always seem to attach the word "our"- because it is "our film heritage", collectively as a society. Just as every one of us should feel some ownership of our society's heritage, so too should we feel that our personal collections play an important role in that heritage.

One of my favorite things to have come out of being in grad school for moving image archiving is that I am now the unofficial archivist of my family. I haven't stolen everyone's old photographs or anything, but I got to take my grandfather's old Super-8's because I would Know What To Do With Them. Now, rather than sitting in a humid attic covered in mold, they're properly cleaned, stored, and, most importantly, someone is keeping an eye on them. They aren't being forgotten as if they were without value. If every one of us found someone- a grandparent, a friend- to discuss the preservation of personal media with, or even helped them dig the stuff out of the basement or garage to actually look at and ENJOY, think of the benefits, small and large, that would have. You don't have to do much to promote a culture of preservation.

- Sadie Menchen

Misconceptions and Musings on Film Preservation

"It's like painting on the film with brushes,” said an acquaintance on what their impression of my degree in Moving Image Archive Studies entailed. Not a bad guess considering most of my family members still think that I’m trying to make or star in the pictures. My normal response to someone asking for a description of my major is along the lines of “part library science, part film studies”. This description only covers a fraction of what I’ve studied these past two years, which still seems like only the surface of what film preservation is. Restoration, conservation, copyright, access, user groups, cataloguing, programming, ephemera, collecting, management, mash-ups, and many other topics have dominated our classes, along with the black sheep of the family: digital cinema.

Supporting the National Film Preservation Foundation and film archives is so important in order to ensure that valuable films of all varieties do not disappear. Film preservation is more then just what archivist’s do, though. Film preservation continues with everyone who goes to midnight movie, watches vintage trailers on Youtube, hangs a movie poster, argues the merits of Avatar, and of course it continues with everyone who keeps film relevant in their blogs.

A trip to the snack bar doesn't hurt either:

-Trisha Lendo

Let Us Now Praise Scratchy Prints
I have nothing against new restorations or new prints. I'm the first one to admire and comment on a particularly fine looking print. A few years back, my theatre, by chance, got an amazing looking print of It's a Wonderful Life for our annual screening and I would peek in on the movie we've all seen scores of times with an almost visceral pleasure. Having said that, I still enjoy seeing a good, beat-up, well-loved, scratchy print.

Maybe it's a contrarian reaction to aesthetic and technical snobbery. Maybe it's my own aesthetic pleasure in a silent soundtrack crackling through the sound head or the assurance it provides that a) I'm seeing a real, live film and b) the projectionist remembered to turn the sound on. Maybe it's the occasional humor or irony provided by the ravages of time. One of my favorite moments at a screening last year was a scene of two lovers professing their eternal devotion, undermined by a prominent scratch that divided them. I don't even recall the film, but the moment was exquisite. Maybe it's some sort of high falutin' 'tangible connection to history." Maybe it's the sense of seeing a rarity: Yeah, yeah, The Red Shoes, fine film, restoration looks great, but I can see it any day of the week. Safe in Hell? At a faraway, suburban library? On 16mm? Surrounded by gabby seniors? Sign me up!

I have fond memories of seeing Nashville for the first time on a beat-to-all-hell print that screened at a venue that had only one projector, necessitating breaks every forty minutes to change reels. The movie still blew my mind. And then there was a print of Thieves' Highway that, as my friend put it, "looked like somebody wiped their ass with it." But the film was amazing.

All of this seems a bit out of place on a blog about film preservation, but I suppose what I'm getting at is the transcendence of any worthwhile art. And, fundamentally, what I want to do is save and preserve that transcendence.

- Charles Edward Rogers

Please donate and read more posts at http://moviepreservation.blogspot.com/

They Shoot Archivists, Don't They?

2010-02-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

The film preservation blog-a-thon is almost upon us. Tons of blogs will be posting on film preservation in order to raise awareness and encourage donations to The National Film Preservation Foundation.

The blog-a-thon is hosted by blogs Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren.

Should provide a lot of reading for the week!

-Trisha

Dark Ages

2010-02-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

As I approach finishing my degree as a Moving Image Archivist I find myself having to explain what exactly that is. How is a "moving image" archivist different than a librarian?

Maybe 10 years ago, when film wasn't entirely "dead," people who were interested in cinema history understood that museums and archives had to keep copies of films, usually a pristine print, in cold and dark conditions. Film was the original "master artifact."

Now that things are produced, delivered, and stored digitally, the public at large have a false impression of how long things will last. I've heard more than once, "now that it's on DVD it'll last forever."

No. DVDs have a half-life of 10 years, and the images are seriously compressed. Not a master.

Furthermore, digital files have a habit of failing suddenly, fatally and permanently. They don't slowly fade or go brittle before our eyes in plain sight. They are hidden behind a cloak of bits-and-code conversion, unreadable and inscrutable until they are called out and reconverted to analog and readable form... if we remember to check every so often.

Same the program to actually render the bits and code. What good is a WordPerfect document if you no longer have access to the program?

And then, there's the hardware to read it. Floppy discs, Zip drives, CD-Roms, all matters of hardware that becomes harder to recreate as time goes by. While 35mm film has been a standard for over 100 years, there isn't a digital format that has lasted meaningfully longer than a decade. And even songs ripped by the first iteration of iTunes can't be read by the newest version.

I'm not suggesting that all of the letter and photographs written and committed to computers instead of paper or film will disappear without anyone realizing. But I'm guessing over 75% of personal correspondance, that our pictures uploaded to iPhoto or left on a CD from Costco in the bottom drawer, files and files on your harddrive that you don't retrieve when you get a new computer, 3 years from now, all that will disappear.

We won't realize it until it's too late. The irony is that we are awash and overcome with information, most of it accessible through computers, digitally. And yet so little of it will survive to be referred to in the future. All this information, all this history, gone and a black hole to the future, like the dark ages.

Nowadays - that is what moving image archiving is about.

Vimeo Staff Picks : Facts About Projection

2010-02-08T14:51:00.000-08:00

Saw this charming video listed on the staff picks on Vimeo today:

Facts About Projection from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

I thought it spoke a lot of truths for those of us who have had the experience (which will soon be a privilege) of working in a movie theater.

- Trisha Lendo

Review: The Iota Center's 2nd Salon

2009-11-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

The Iota Center, a non-profit organization supporting experimental artists, screened some of their films last night at the Broad Art Center on campus. The Iota Salon consisted of 10 films ranging in format and creation date all connected by the night's theme: rhythm. The program was broken into three sections with a discussion after each. The audience was encouraged to explore the relationship the films had with one another and to bring up any point of interest. Films included were Mood Contrasts by Mary Ellen Bute and Norman McLaren, Luma Nocturna by Sky David, Rumble by Jules Engel, Velocity by Iconish and Foraudiofans, Rorschach by Debralee Shelby, 8.1 by Oerd Van Cuijlenborg, Fleshtones by Phil Souper, Runa's Spell by Stephanie Maxwell, Respect for Red and Green by Neil Ira Needleman, and New (Untitled) Work by Chris Casady.

Breaking the program into sections allowed the audience a breather in between films and also allowed thoughts to come out while they were fresh in the audiences mind. A common discussion of the night was the idea of creating music for film vs. creating a film for music. Their was one silent piece, Respect for Red and Green, which was played last because of a dvd player malfunction. Playing the silent piece last ended up having an interesting effect, because the audience was able compare the piece's visual rhythm, with that of the rhytm of the musical pieces.

Another interesting surprise of the night was the effect the Broad's space had on the viewing. The room is all white with blank walls. Light from the films filled the room, enhancing the rhythms of the film and magnifying them. The programs unique space and format made for a refreshing and entertaining night.

The Next Iota Salon at UCLA is on Jan. 7th.

AMIA Panel Recaps

2009-11-16T23:34:00.001-08:00

When are New Technologies For You - 11/5/2009 The session “When are New Technologies For You” was an explanation on how to chose the right social networking site for your archive. The session included Kim Schroeder from Archive Media Partners,   Alexis Braun Marks from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and Lisa Rabey from Wayne State University. Although a frequent user of most of the technologies covered in the panel, I found the session useful on understanding their roles in archives. The session began with explaining what sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Wordpress are and then got more in depth about what questions archivists should ask themselves before starting to use these tools. One major point stressed by all three speakers was to sit down and make a plan and not uses these tools blindly. Lisa Rabey began the session by telling her own personal experience with Twitter and how it has lead her to be in contact with many different archives and collages. Rabey connected with many AMIA particpants just by searching for AMIA on Twitter and UCLA’s own Alice Royer, appeared at the top of her Twitter feed. One website the panel presented that I had yet to explore was Second Life. Two different archives’ exhibits on Second Life were shown; The University of Detroit Mercy's Black Abolitionist Digitial Archive and the Stanford Archive. Both archives had well developed buildings and exhibits on Second Life. Rabey did mentioned, however, that when she looked into building a Second Life spaces, the yearly cost was very expensive, so Second Life may not be the right avenue at the moment for most archives.Other interesting points from the presentations:
Archives should think hard about the shortened name they use to represent themselves on social networking sites and make sure this name is consistent with all their websites.
Do not start a site and neglect it because that could turn new visitors off. Make a schedule so it can be regularly updated. A budget for new technologies including hard and soft costs like systems upgrade, staff time, and problem solving comes out to an estimated $637.50.Consider looking into international social networking sites if you are an archive interested in reaching a worldwide audience. There may be one out there you have not heard about.If you have free time, make a back-log of interesting facts that you can post on your blog or twitter on days when you don’t have time to write something.When including user created data in your site, take the time to teach your community how to use these tools correctly so that community created data will have useful tags and info; therefore be able to produce better search results. One interesting area of Social Networking that I wish they would have included was the importance of design. Currently, I am taking the Digital Essay class, so the importance of design on the web is prevalent in my mind this quarter. Since their presentation covered the basics of new technologies maybe this idea would be something to delve into once more people are acquainted with how to use these tools. Websites from the presentation:
Duke University Ad Archives Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History’s  Twitter Page Stanford Archives on Second Life Kim Schoreder’s Presentation on Slide Share AMIA Program Description-Trisha

Fragment Identification: Silent Era Film (1895-1929) - 11/6/2009. This session was presented by Antonella Bonfanti from George Eastman House, Anthony L’Abbate from George Eastman House, George R. Willeman from Library of Congress, Rachel Parker from Library of Congress. This session covered different ways of identifying fragments of nitrate film. George Willeman offered examples of different gauges, from 17.5mm to 22mm and 28mm. He discussed edge codes, started in 1913 by Kodak, and updated in 1916 with the system of symbols we have come to know, and he showed examples of different perforations such as Bell and Howell, Kodak standard, and Dubray Howell. George explained that hand painted or stencil color tends to be Pathe, and discussed other types of color from tinting and toning to the Handschiegl Process (which is hand colored), Kinema Color (which can be identified by an egg shaped sprocket hole in every other fame), Prizma Color, Multicolor (which has emulsion on both sides – one red, one blue), Dufay Color, Two Color Technicolor (no edge codes, negative has two frame inversion), and Kodacolor Lenticular. Anthony L’Abbate discussed visual clues such as studio trademarks and logos, title numbers, censor titles, and street lamp styles of different cities. He also explored women’s clothing styles throughout the silent era, from length of skirt to size of hat. Finally, Rachel Parker discussed online resources available for identifying nitrate film, such as the nitrate interest group and their Flickr page, Nitrateville, and the Kansas Board of Review Movie Index, which features a cut scene index and is the only online censorship database of its kind. She also mentioned the book Physical Characteristics of Early Films as Aids to Identification by Harold Brown, published by FIAF, as well as the Vitaphone Catalog. The session was practical and useful to those of us interested in working with nitrate collections. For more: the Nitrate interest group,NFIG Flickr, Nitrateville, Kansas Board of Review.- Amy Jo

Reports from the Field: A Learning Laboratory – The Haghefilm Foundation – 11/7/2009. This session was presented by Paolo Cherchi Usai, from the Haghefilm Foundation. Paolo Cherchi Usai discussed the necessary relationship and understanding between labs, archives, and scholars, pointing out that those who technically preserve a film are doing more than purely technical work. To this end, he discussed the funding in place by the Haghefilm Foundation, for internships and technical training programs at the Haghefilm Laboratories in Amsterdam. Interested students can submit a proposal at anytime, for a project of any length (suggested minimum of 1 month, 6 months is perfect, 1 year is ideal). An individual could chose to do a comprehensive overview or focus on a specific aspect of restoration such as optical and contact printing, color timing, grading, or sensitometry. The training programs cover not only how things are done, but also why. The foundation seeks individuals who plan on working for non-profits, and applications cannot be submitted from for-profit institutions. Internships are fully booked until July 2010, but interested applicants can submit proposals at any time. Funding will not be provided for housing during internships or training programs, and the foundation does not support presentation of films. Ultimately, the program appears to provide the intensive technical training that fills the gap in academic programs in our field. See you in Amsterdam?? Haghefilm Foundation . -Amy Jo

Khhaaaaaannnnnnn!

2009-11-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

A number of MIAS students were privileged to attend a screening on the Paramount lot of a new restoration of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Though produced for an upcoming Blu-Ray release, the picture looked flawless on the screen. To my surprise, most of us had not seen the movie before, but I believe we all enjoyed it. We also were treated to a brief introduction with some of the restorers and the director of the film, Nicholas Meyer. Mr. Meyer seemed eloquent and modest, and spoke about having to rein in some of the restoration efforts that, he thought, went too far. Also on view were several models from the film, as well as a number of amazing stills. And there was free food and drink. And Ricardo Montalban looking all cut at sixty.

FOOTSTEPS AND FOG: BRITISH FILM NOIR

2009-10-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

Friday October 23 2009, 7:30PM

New Print!
THE LONG HAUL
(1957) Directed by Ken Hughes

Racketeering is the principal cargo in this well-tuned tale about a trucker in trouble. Victor Mature (in a role intended for Marlon Brando) plays Harry Miller, a deactivated G.I. stranded in England with his Liverpudlian wife. Harry signs on as a driver for a lorry combine only to find that mobsters rule the road. Joe Easy (Patrick Allen), the ruthless thug who runs Easy Hauling, plays it fast and loose with his freight, but not as loose as his curvaceous cohort Lynn (Diana Dors, the British Monroe). Once Harry catches sight of her, Dors becomes the soft shoulder on a road to nowhere. Though Hell Drivers emphasizes rivalry among the drivers themselves, both of these big wheelers saw the hauling biz as a shiftless world of lowballers and hijackers. Caught up in the momentum, Harry must choose between a pedestrian life with wife and child and the felonious fast lane.The Long Haul offers no rest stop for the wicked. ––Steve Seid, Pacific Film Archive.
Based on the novel by Mervyn Mills. Producer: Maxwell Setton. Screenwriter: Ken Hughes. Cinematographer: Basil Emmott. Editor: Raymond Poulton. Cast: Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Gene Anderson. 35mm, B/W, 88 min.

HELL DRIVERS
(1957) Directed by Cy Endfield

Cy Endfield, another of this series’ refugees from the Hollywood blacklist, delivers a raw critique of capitalist exploitation in the form of a full-throttle thriller. Stanley Baker plays an ex-con who drifts into a job hauling gravel for Hawlett’s, a trucking company where only the desperate need apply. Spurred on by openly ruthless management, marginal men—including pious, naive "Italian" Herbert Lom and a young Sean Connery—vie to beat the pace set by the unhinged Irishman at the wheel of truck Number 1: Patrick McGoohan, before he was The Prisoner’s Number 6. There’s plenty of action in the rattle and roar of trucks careening along country roads, but the film’s suspense comes from social pressures rather than speed as the rivalry between Baker and McGoohan becomes increasingly explosive. The ultimate use of all those rocks is never mentioned; hauling endless tons of cargo in a race none of them can ever really win, the drivers are embodiments of labor as a road to nowhere. —Juliet Clark, Pacific Film Archive.
Based on a story by J. Kruse. Screenplay: Cy Endfield, John Kruse. Cinematographer: Geoffrey Unsworth. Cast: Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell. 35mm, B/W, 108 min.

Billy Wilder Theater

Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90024

310.206.8013

A Good Time Was Had By All: Report From Home Movie Day

2009-10-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, the seventh annual Home Movie Day was Saturday. The local iteration of the international event was held at the Academy Film Archive in Hollywood. Not only was this my first time volunteering, it was also my first time attending and my first visit to the Academy. I liked that their individual vaults were named after Mary Pickford roles. Also, very clean.

UCLA was well-represented, with MIAS students enjoying the films; volunteering as film inspectors, note-takers, and gophers; and presenting movies. Several times, I found myself wishing that I had not left all of my 8mm of late '70s White Sox games back in Chicago. I would guess that the majority of us most enjoyed the early films of Roger Brown that we were privileged to see, both crime sagas: The Goshfather and The Fence. We look forward to their uploading.

Other highlights included impressionistic views of California's missions, in color; footage on the location of The Last Picture Show (one of my (and my mom's) personal favorites); several charming and/or frightening homemade narratives; and plenty of irresistible children. We also saw movies of prewar Europe, amusement parks (who knew that there was a Santa's Village in southern California, too?), early '80s Iowa, working class Santa Barbara in the '40s, picnics, marching bands, ice skating...this list goes on. Even some of the more banal stuff usually had something interesting going for it, if only to hear people's first-hand recollections.

In short, start digging in your aunt's closet now for next year's show.

Come Zither

2009-10-18T19:24:00.001-07:00

Several of us went to the Hammer's double feature last night, "The Third Man" and "Night and the City" (see below), and I bet I wasn't the only one seduced by Anton Karas' score of "The Third Man". I just downloaded a 2003 recording of the entire score and it was $9.99 well spent.

I'm not really one for reviewing CDs-- I'll leave that to people like Andrew Granade of SoundtrackNet who care more than I do-- but I do have to warn that many of the tracks are "introduced" by pieces of dialog from the movie's audio track. I'm not a big fan of that sort of thing. However, since Amazon had the MP3 available for instantaneous download and I'm impatient, I went with this version-- and I'm so pleased with it that I had to stop waltzing around my room to tell everyone about it.

FOOTSTEPS AND FOG: BRITISH FILM NOIR

2009-10-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

9.11.09 - 10.31.09
FOOTSTEPS AND FOG: BRITISH FILM NOIR

French film scholars coined the term Film Noir to describe a particular cycle of American films dealing with dark themes (crime, betrayal, fatalism, and general post-war malaise) often imbued with a signature shadowy visual style. Though less well known, and with their own distinct sensibilities and variations, British filmmakers also made some fascinating contributions to this enigmatic genre. Our selection includes vaunted masterworks like Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), as well as rarities like the notoriousNo Orchids for Miss Blandish (St. John L. Clowes, 1948)–what’s more, this program provides the opportunity to see many rare archival prints which are being shipped in from the UK. Shot in locales from London to the Lake District and beyond, this program aims to shine a light on the darkness from across the pond.

Saturday October 17 2009, 7:30PM
THE THIRD MAN
(1949) Directed by Carol Reed

Graham Greene’s first screenplay unspools against the backdrop of a post WWII Vienna still under control of the Allied authorities. Joseph Cotten stars as a beleaguered pulp novelist unwittingly embroiled in a vast conspiracy. Orson Welles famously plays the amoral Harry Lime, a charismatic racketeer haunting the back alleys and underground sewers of the ruined city. Greene’s world-weary script is brilliantly enhanced by Carol Reed’s expressionistic visual style, not to mention Anton Karas’ indelible zither score. A commercial and critical success on its initial release, The Third Man is now widely recognized as a masterpiece of film noir and a high point in the history of British cinema.

Based on the story by Graham Greene. Screenplay: Graham Greene. Cinematographer:Robert Krasker. Editor: Oswald Hafenrichter. Cast: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard. 35mm, B/W, 100 min.

NIGHT AND THE CITY
(1950) Directed by Jules Dassin

Richard Widmark’s trademark combination of sleazy glibness and sweaty desperation finds its ideal expression in the role of London club tout and compulsive striver Harry Fabian. Described by a rival as "an artist without an art," Fabian attempts to make his mark as a promoter in the Greco-Roman wrestling racket, a sport that takes brutality to the level of art both in and out of the ring. With its chiaroscuro cinematography and stylized portrayals of underworld characters—Francis L. Sullivan as a grotesque club owner, Googie Withers as his ambitious wife, Herbert Lom as a vicious racketeer, Polish champion wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko as "Gregorius the Great"—the film sketches a place that is nominally London but really a realm of fevered urban imagination. The recurring image is of Fabian scrambling through dark alleys, trying and failing to get ahead of his fate—an appropriate motif for director Jules Dassin, who made the film while in exile from McCarthy-era Hollywood. —Juliet Clark, Pacific Film Archive.

Twentieth Century Fox. Based on the novel by Gerald Kersh. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Screenplay: Jo Eisinger. Cinematographer: Max Greene. Cast: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan. 35mm, B/W, 95 min.

Billy Wilder Theater
Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.206.8013

Who knew? Hand-painted movies posters from Ghana

2009-10-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Last week my "Digital Imaging for Art/Archaeology Conservation" class visited the Fowler Museum where Director of Conservation, Jo Hill, presented an impressive display of various documentation methods that the Fowler employs to keep track of their vast collection. Of all the documents, one group interested me the most: condition reports related to an 2001 exhibit of Ghanaian movie posters from the 1980's-1990's.

These posters were painted on canvas or grain sacks, advertised contemporary American movies, and were produced for traveling video cinemas. Many are signed by their artist. The movie preferences represented by this group of posters seem to lean toward violence, action, and sex. Think kung-fu.

The Fowler's description of the exhibit:
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, hand-painted posters on canvas were the principal means of advertising for Ghana's independent mobile cinema industry. They stand out from other West African artistic traditions by their highly individualistic style, complex narrative and Western-influenced attitudes towards sex and violence. The visual effect of these bold and uncensored posters can be compared to that of neon signs. Now replaced by mass-produced posters and other types of inexpensive signage, these precious hand-painted canvases are a vibrant legacy of a melding of disparate cultures that occurred in Ghana when movies, in the form of videocassettes, began to pour in from all over the world.

Anyway, I was totally surprised to find such home-grown advertising, especially in the modern world, for titles that are more likely to make you think of blockbuster production and the most mass-produced marketing schemes. I would love to learn more about the background of these posters. Questions that I have are:

How long after US release would Ghana typically receive copies of a title?
Were mass-produced posters not available in Ghana? If so, why not?
How representative is the Fowler's collection of movie tastes in Ghana at that time?
Are hand-painted movie posters still typical in Ghana or has the market changed?
How did the Fowler Museum acquire this collection?

For more information, here's a good blogpost from the Ephemera Assemblyman.
Thanks, Ephemera Assemblyman, for the "Terminator" image!

"Today We're Going To Create a Mash-up"

2009-10-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 22nd - RiP : A Remix Manifesto plays at Melnitz Movies

I'm not sure if this movie will speak for everything we've been discussing lately in class, or just serve as a long Girl Talk advertisement. Either way, I'm down.

-Trisha

Home Movie Day

2009-10-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 17, 2009
Academy Film Archive
Linwood Dunn Theater
1313 Vine St.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Contacts: Brian Drischell & Sean Savage
bdrischell@oscars.org, ssavage@oscars.org
(310) 347-3016, Brian x396, Sean x381

Noon-4:00pm
(film drop-off begins 11:00am)
Free Admission

Home Movie Day is an annual celebration of amateur films and filmmaking at many local venues worldwide, providing an opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience in their community. It’s a chance to discover why it’s important to care about and how to care for these precious films.

Formats supported:
8mm, Super-8, 9.5mm, 16mm

Bring yours!

SPECIAL EVENING EVENT:

Hollywood Home Movies!
10/17/2009
7:00pm

Linwood Dunn Theater
1313 Vine St.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Tickets: $5 general/$3 Academy members

Culled from the collections of the Academy Film Archive, come enjoy a rare screening of home movies from the golden age of Hollywood featuring candid glimpses of popular personalities.

The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at the Academy’s Pickford Center for the Motion Picture Study, 1313 N. Vine St, Hollywood. Free parking is available behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue (one block north of Fountain). Doors open at 11:00am for Home Movie Day, and 6:30pm for the evening event.

NOWCASTING: DESIGN THEORY AND THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES

2009-10-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

NOWCASTING: DESIGN THEORY AND THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES

SYMPOSIUM

October 16, 2009, 9:00 am

NOWCASTING is the first conference to apply design theory to emerging issues in the digital humanities. Showcasing digital humanities projects at every level from Google mapping to super computing visualization, the Nowcasting seminar proposes that learning from communication design, interaction design, and industrial design will be vital to 21st century humanistic inquiry.

The Nowcasting Seminar is organized by Peter Lunenfeld + sponsored by University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), UCLA Design|Media Arts ,Digital Humanities + Media Study

EDA (Map)

Broad Art Center

240 Charles E. Young Drive, Room 1250

Los Angeles, CA 90095

Movie Poster Floating Heads

2009-10-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Movie Poster Floating Heads - watch more funny videos

-Trisha

AMIA Conference 2009

2009-10-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

The AMIA Conference provides an opportunity for a diverse array of professionals, students, and friends of the field, to meet, share information and work together through an intensive and cost-effective learning forum for audiovisual preservation and access. For newcomers to this vibrant, dynamic, and committed community, networking with other AMIA members and industry professionals is an invaluable introduction.

The full-day, pre-conference workshops provide unique professional development programs at a cost that is highly competitive with comparable regional offerings. This year's workshops will be presented by an international roster of expert instructors in areas including: analog-to-digital conversion; XML; preservation of audiovisual assets; imaging technology and workflow options; and, disaster planning and recovery.

AMIA Conference registration includes participation in all regular sessions and screenings and some special events. Organized by working moving image archivists, the conference program focuses on urgent problems faced by units from the "lone arranger" to national collections, with attention to pressures of shifting technologies and reduced budgets. Each hour is packed with practical and essential information on film, video, and audio issues and there is direct access to presenters and vendors for necessary services and technology to do your job.

Saving Egyptian Film Classics

2009-10-13T23:28:00.001-07:00

Turn Your Ipod Into A RCA

2009-10-12T20:23:00.002-07:00

When Warner Bros opened their film archive to customers for downloading and ordering earlier this year, they also offered a series of podcasts from their vaults that were advertisements in the form of radio shows. Although no longer available at the Warner Brothers Shop website, all 14 podcasts can still be downloaded for free from Itunes.

Basically, its an advertisement in the form of another advertisement.

Happy Vintage Listening,

Trisha

Culver City - Then and Now

2009-07-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Culver City website has a neato photo archive that matches old photos of Culver with what they look like today. Included are photos of the Culver Theater and Selznick International Studios:

THEN AND NOW PHOTO GALLERY

-Trisha

OUTFEST 2009

2009-07-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

July 9th-19th

This year's fest includes a restoration screening of the film CHOOSING CHILDREN (1984) from the Legacy Project and retrospective screenings of movies from the Culver City distributor, Strand Releasing including PARTY MONSTER(2002) and The Living End(1992).

Also not to be missed is a special sing-along screening of FUNNY GIRL(1968).

More Info:
Schedule
LA TIMES Article

-Trisha

AMPAS Digital Motion Picture Metadata Symposium - TOMORROW

2009-06-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

There are still 13 FREE tickets left for TOMORROW. Go to this link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/329230738.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council

Digital Motion Picture Metadata Symposium

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Digital Motion Picture Metadata Symposium is a one-day event featuring guest lectures and case studies on the cataloging and classification of digital motion picture materials.

The Digital Motion Picture Metadata Symposium is part of the Library of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The Science and Technology Council is an NDIIPP participant, and is addressing aspects of the long-term preservation of creative content in digital form.

Objectives and topics covered:

• The Big Picture – long-term issues and challenges around digital assets for

motion pictures, including archiving and retrieval, storage, standards, encoding and preservation.

• The Basics – metadata lifecycles, taxonomy, controlled vocabularies and the role of standards.

• Technical issues – workflow, integration, interoperability, and standards creation and adoption.

• Implementation and Operation – requirements for standards adoption and metadata capture
implementation.

• Digital Object Unique Identifiers

• Digital File Formats

Featured speakers:

Larry Blake, Swelltone

Karen Broome, SMPTE

Ryan Cox, Director of Product Management, Gracenote

Seth Earley, President, Earley and Associates

Ray Feeney, Co-chair, Science and Technology Council, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Rebecca Guenther, Senior Networking and Standards Specialist, Library of Congress

Jim Houston, Chair, Image Interchange Framework Subcommittee, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Michael B. Johnson, PhD, MPG Lead, Pixar Animation Studios

Larry Lannom, Director of Information Management Technology and Vice President, Corporation for National Research Initiatives.

Andy Maltz, Director, Science and Technology Council, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Peter Mavromates, Director of Post Production, Marvel Studios, and Post Production Supervisor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Nancy Silver, Digital Archival Program Manager, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Jeff Stevens, Vice President, Warner Bros. Digital Archives

Symposium Location:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study

1313 Vine Street

Hollywood, CA 90028

(310) 247-3000

Symposium Parking:

Please park at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinema Parking Lot - $10 Parking Fee

6360 W. Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90028

(323) 464-4226

Symposium Schedule:

Thursday June 11, 2009

7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Lunch break 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Continental breakfast and afternoon refreshments provided

Invitees must register to attend.

Tetro premiered at Hammer last night

2009-06-04T17:54:00.001-07:00

Rosen, Elwes, Horak (L to R).

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Image from zimbio.com

VIP guest speakers tonight in Digital Preservation class

2009-05-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Professor Victoria McCargar has been gracious enough to extend the invitation to MIAS students to join the INFS 289-2 Digital Preservation class tonight. The topic is The Digital Dilemma and will host members from the Academy's Science and Technology Council.

Class starts promptly at 5:30pm GSEIS Rm. 111.

From Professor McCargar:

"We are fortunate to have enlisted a couple of speakers with important
expertise in film production and archives. That they are interested in doing
this for us is at least in part a commentary on importance they place on the
availability of knowledgeable archivists.

First up will be Brad Hunt, currently a consultant who has had a long career
in imaging technology at Kodak and in filmmaking. A member of the Motion
Picture Academy's Science and Technology Council, Brad was on the Digital
Motion Picture Archival Project Committee and part of the team that produced
"The Digital Dilemma." He has been fascinated for a long time by the
preservation issues as the industry goes digital, and will share both his
professional and personal insights.

Jerry Mills is another person who's fascinated by the preservation issues in
digital moviemaking and will be sharing his experience and views on the
economics and practicalities in the (completely counterintuitive) area of
copying digital back to film. He's smart and enthusiastic and, like Brad,
really knows his stuff.

Last but not least, we will probably be hosting a VIP: Andy Maltz, the
director of the AMPAS Science and Technology Council. He's interested not
only in the presentations but your insights as students and future
archivists.

Not to put too fine a point on it, if you're aiming for a career in film
archives this will be an important session. If there are other MIAS student
who you think would benefit, please invite them (space permitting). Come with
good questions.

Vicky

LA Film Festival Line-UP

2009-05-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

There year's festival will include a preservation screening of the newly restored Night Tide, along with some of Andy Warhol's Screentests, accompanied by live music.

Schedule

-Trisha

To all of us who recently finished our Comp Exams

2009-04-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

From my friend, Jenny, a first year law school student:
"Two days after midterms exams at LLS, my brother gave me this on my birthday. He said some proctor at Loyola had mailed it to him accidentally, and that he's pretty sure I missed the due date, but I should probably turn it in anyway and see if I can get partial credit. It was a little hard to tell that this test was fake, frankly."

LAW SCHOOL FINAL EXAM (but, hey doesn't this also remind you a little bit of the MIAS second year comps?)

Final Exam

Instructions
1) This is an open book exam. You are allowed to consult "Treasure Island", Dilbert cartoons, and your horoscope.
2) This exam consists of four essay questions, and 300 multiple choice questions. The booklet containing the multiple choice questions is only available through the Registrar's Office, and the deadline to request it was several days ago. Idiot.
3) Triple space your answers, and print them in a descending spiral pattern. Begin by using centerwise orientation, returning to reverse-wise orientation on every fourth page.
4) Did I say fourth page? I meant third.
5) You have twenty minutes to answer each question, for a total of roughly four days. Use your time carefully!

Essay Question(s)

1. A duck is walking down the main thoroughfare of Wekausha, Minnesota on a Friday, wearing pants. He does not have a license to do so. Cornelius von Plaintiff is walking down the street when he encounters the duck and has a heart attack. He falls backward, his body landing just outside the city limits. He is rushed to the hospital, where his surgeon starts a pie fight in the middle of his open-heart surgery. Cornelius is not injured, but a piece of crust falls into his mouth, triggering a diabetic reaction which blinds him permanently. After being released from the hospital, the newly blind Cornelius accidentally bumps into a man carrying a piano. The piano falls on top of a horse, which runs away with the piano and is never seen again. Unbeknownst to the man carrying it, the piano was a rare antique worth $7,000,000. What causes of action does Cornelius have against the duck, and vice-versa?

Additional Facts:
-Wekausha Municipal Code Sec. 28.331 reads: "Ye ducks, or any bipedal waterfowl of a similar stripe, may not saunter, jog, or mosey down teh boulevards and avenues of our fine city, on penalty of imprisonment. Anyone found aiding and abetting such behaviour shall be frozen in ice for all eternity. This regulation shall only be in force during the hours of Friday, excepting of course leap years, in which the process shall be reversed."
-The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to ducks, or civilians. Ignore it.
-It is 11:01 p.m., and also daylight savings time switchover day (in Spring). So maybe it's not actually Friday, huh genius?
-The mayor recently declared Friday would henceforth be Opposite Day. He was impeached soon after. However, he was impeached while sailing a boat over the international date line, which means they impeached him before he even declared the whole opposite day thing. Keep in mind that one of the deputy mayors always tells the truth, and one of them always lies. Can you figure out which is which?

2. Ivan and Pedro are planning to rob a liquor store. They have managed to illegally acquire several firearms, and have "cased" the store repeatedly over the last few days. You in?

3. Li Po, a Chinese immigrant, is confronted by several racist thugs outside a restaurant where he works. At first, he just tries to walk away, but they won't let him. He's really polite, but then the main thug attacks him for no reason. Big Mistake. Li Po throws an insane spin kick which takes out three of the guys, and he jump kicks the other one. Uh-oh, this last guy is pretty tough, and manages to block the jump kick! They throw punches at each other, and then Li Po kicks the sword out of his hand (P.S. the thug has a sword). Li Po's arm glows bright red as he charges up for a super-powerful hit combo. He uppercuts the thug, and then kicks him several times in mid-air. Awesome!

4. X makes the following conveyance of Blackacre: "To A and his heirs, on condition that until the land is used for a ventriloquist convention, the heirs of O will have a possibility of reverter, unless A is 25 at the time of the convention. If O does not have any grandchildren prior to the vesting of the preceding estate, then A shall have an estate in fee tail regardless of the interests of X's heirs, on condition that X eat at Red Lobster once a week for the next year, but if there is no Red Lobster within 25 miles of X's house, then to B in fee simple absolute."
a. If we know that the state has recently repealed a law containing a provision which strictly opposed the idea that contingent remainders are not indestructible, what interest does B's grandma have in Blackacre?
b. Isn't B's grandma allergic to lobster? Assume that the Rule Against Perpetuities is being used.
c. Prior to 1536, what is the state of the title if A invites several ventriloquists over for dinner, but gives them careful instructions not to bring any other ventriloquists with them, but then Marty goes ahead and invites a bunch of them, so now it's pretty much a convention. What the hell, Marty?

Bonus Question: Who would ever really wanna go and top that? (cite specific cases)

CALL FOR PAPERS ON NEW MEDIA IN THE MAJORITY WORLD

2009-04-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

The next issue of the Velvet Light Trap will focus on New Media in the Majority World. Submissions are due by Sept. 15, 2009. More info here:

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/journals/papersw.html

-Trisha

Another satisfied customer

2009-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Rave reviews for the Warner Archive Collection DVD project:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40829
Ain't It Cool News

Shop the collection here: http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive/ARCHIVE,default,sc.html

Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud starring Bud Cort Thursday 4/16

2009-04-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Crank will continue its 2009 spring program with Robert Altman's
BREWSTER MCCLOUD (1970) on Thursday, April 16th at 5pm in the James Bridges Theater at UCLA.

In Robert Altman's whimsical and wonderful youthquake film BREWSTER MCCLOUD,
a quirky young man who has set up camp in the Huston Astrodome decides to
construct a pair of human-sized wings and test them out in his wacky surroundings. Meanwhile, notorious members of the community wind up dead,
their bodies littered with bird droppings. The strangeness continues as a
San Francisco "super cop" is called in to investigate the mysterious deaths,
and an Astrodome usher (played by Shelley Duvall) becomes a romantic and
sexual distraction for the Icarus-imitating Brestwer. Join us on Thursday
to see the film hailed by Film Quarterly as "a brilliant, complex,
exhilarating, puzzling, highly intellectual work," and written glowingly
about in the Los Angeles Times as "a thoroughly delightful comedy in the
hip, irreverent modern tradition."

BREWSTER MCCLOUD (35mm, 105 min.)

Thursday, April 16th at 5pm

James Bridges Theater, UCLA

Internship/Career Fair this Friday 4/17

2009-04-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

INTERNSHIP/CAREER FAIR 2009

Friday, April 17th, 2009
GSE&IS Building
From 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Refreshments will be served

Sites confirmed for this event are:

University of Southern California Archives
Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Seaver Center for Western History Research, LACNHM
California State University, Long Beach
California Center for the Book
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
LA84 Foundation
Getty Research Institute
Glendale Public Library
Pasadena Public Library
20th Century Fox Research Library
Getty Conservation Institute
Library Associates Companies
20th Century Fox Photo Archive
SCELC - Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Wende Museum
County of Los Angeles Public Library
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Clear Channel Outdoor
Los Angeles Public Library
Santa Monica Public Library
Loyola Marymount University Library
Occidental College
Pacifica Radio Archives
Los Angeles City College
Center for Governmental Studies
California State University, Northridge
Braun Research Library, Autry National Center
The Buckley School
NBC Universal Archives & Collections
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
The Metadata Company
Skirball Cultural Center and Museum
University of Redlands
Providence High School Library
Windward School
Sony Pictures Stock Footage
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Library
USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual history and Education
American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles

Horror of the 80s at EPFC

2009-04-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Echo Park Film Center calls Dino Everett the Rock and roll archivist. We know him as a MIAS alum who also rocks. As part of his ongoing nights at the EPFC, next week's showcase is an 80's Horror Fest with screenings of cult director Gorman Bechard's first feature, Disconnected (1983). The slasher flic delivers twins, bad mullets, pumping new wave music and a respectable body count. Dino owns and will be screening the only print in existence.

The feature is preceded by a horrifically cheesy 80's educational Etiquette starring a pre-Hollywood Cuba Gooding Jr. and a rare silent German expressionist stab at Cinderella (1923) on 9.5mm.

I highly recommend a screening at the EPFC if you have never been. They run completely by volunteers and have promoted filmmaking education and access in the East side neighborhoods since 2002.

DINO'S DRIVE-IN HORRORFEST @ THE ECHO PARK FILM CENTER
Thursday, April 30
8:00pm
$5 at the door
More EPFC events this month: link.

Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum Tour April 18th

2009-04-10T11:03:00.001-07:00

The AMIA Student Chapter is hosting a tour of the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum on Saturday April, 18th at 1:00pm. Join us for the tour of the unique and grassroots institution containing rare books, photos, and films pertaining to African American culture.

More info on the MCLM here.

Thanks,

Trisha

Scholarship Deadline Reminder

2009-04-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Association of Moving Image Archivists is accepting applications for its 2009 Scholarship, Fellowship and Internship Program.

Five scholarships will be awarded: the CFI Sid Solow Scholarship, the Mary Pickford Scholarship, the Sony Pictures Scholarship, the Universal Studios Preservation Scholarship, and The Rick Chace Foundation Scholarship. In addition, the Kodak Fellowship in Film Preservation, the IPI Internship in Preservation Research and the Rockefeller Visiting Archivist Fellowship will be awarded this year.

For further information, deadlines and applications, please visit the AMIA web page at www.amianet.org/events/scholarship.php.

Deadline is May 15, 2009.

Happy April 9!

2009-04-08T15:00:00.001-07:00

Feminist blog Jezebel posted on Tuesday a shout-out to Marian Anderson's historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. April 9th marks the 70th anniversary of the legendary contralto's concert, after having been denied entrance to Constitution Hall by the D.A.R.

Check it out: http://jezebel.com/5202551/of-thee-i-sing#viewcomments

More commentary from the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/04/13/090413crat_atlarge_ross.

"you're welcome" -- UCLA Film & Television Archive

Hollywood Vault Tours

2009-04-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 17 2:00pm
Tour the Hollywood Vaults with the AMIA student chapter.

The Hollywood Vaults offers preservation storage to the entertainment industry.
(They have every clip from America's Funniest Home Videos. Just ask Oprah: http://www.hollywoodvaults.com/videos/oprah/index.html.) They are also a long running sponsor of AMIA conferences.

David Wexler, cousin to Haskell Wexler, will be conducting the tour.

email Rachel Price with questions: rpirce4 at mindspring dot com.

Merchant-Ivory march madness

2009-03-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Is anyone a Criterion Auteur member? If you are, you can watch FREE Merchant-Ivory films all this month. And it appears you can also watch other selections from the Criterion collection for only $5. I'm mainly curious to see what anyone thinks about being one of these "Auteurs". Does it cost? Is it worth it? From the looks of the site today, there haven't been that many views. I wonder what IFC's motivation is too, to provide free content.
Why is this site still in Beta mode? Hasn't this Auteurs site been up for a while?

Go here: www.theauteurs.com/criterion.

AMIA Volunteer Editor Position for the Newsletter Calendar

2009-03-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

The following was posted by the AMIA Office to the AMIA members List-serv on March 19, 2009:

The Newsletter needs a volunteer to help track events and important deadlines for AMIA members. The Calendar is published quarterly.

Newsbriefs Editor: If you spend time on the web looking for information that pertains to archives, moving images, and other news important to AMIA members, please think of volunteering as a Newsbriefs editor. It's as easy as sending an email with the link of the news articles you find.

Please contact the AMIA Office if you are interested.

All Nite Movie Anyone?

2009-03-10T00:32:00.001-07:00

Photo courtesy the Online Archive of California

-Trisha

Pictures From Cinetech Tour

2009-03-07T00:15:00.000-08:00

-Trisha

IS Careerfest, Special Collections Panel

2009-03-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

Come hear from these archivists:

John Cahoon, Seaver Center for Western Historical Research Collections Manager
Sue Hodson, The Huntington Library Curator of Literary Manuscripts
Andrea McCarty, Home Box Office (HBO) archivist
Paul Wormser, NARA Pacific Regional Archives Director
Morgan Yates, Automobile Club of Southern California corporate archivist

Tues. March 3, 12:30-1:30PM in UCLA's GSE&IS Building, 2nd Floor Salon

Bruce Conner & Dennis Hopper

2009-02-27T10:51:00.001-08:00

See you all tomorrow night at the UCLA Archive Bruce Conner screening. Maybe get there early for good seats? There's been a lot of press attention.

Bruce Conner photo by Dennis Hopper. From Movie City Indie.

AMIA Conference 2009

2009-02-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

AMIA 2009
November 4-7
St. Louis, MO

-Trisha

14TH FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION

2009-02-25T10:51:00.000-08:00

March 13th is the opening night of the two month long FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION. John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence kicks off this years festival that will include preservation highlights in silent film, television, documentary, orphan films and more. Check out the complete schedule at the UCLA Film and Television Archive website:

Complete Schedule

-Trisha

AMIA Student Chapter Meeting, snacks on campus

2009-02-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

The AMIA Student Chapter is hosting a meeting for all our members and interested parties Wednesday evening in the GSE&IS student lounge at UCLA.

Wednesday, Feb. 25
GSE&IS student lounge, 1st floor
5:00pm

Please bring snacks to share.

We'll be following up on topics discussed in our first meeting and also announcing the upcoming tours and events.

See you there!

The New and Improved French Connection

2009-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

Robert Harris (yes, that Robert Harris) was involved in the new restoration of William Friedkin's "The French Connection," and it's worthy of revisiting (Friedkin is doing a Coppola - since he isn't producing films on note anymore (I haven't seen "Bug," so I'm reserving judgment), he might as well restore the old triumphs). And perhaps to be expected, there are concerns about the results of the updating, seen here on the Home Theatre Forum website (here).

Apparently they've moved from the original 1971 film stock color palette and "reimagined" the look, making it more in tune with a '40s Technicolor look, "denaturalizing" the original and sharpening the contrast. While not in the ballpark of Lucas changing plotpoints in his reissues of "Star Wars," this again brings up the responsibility of a filmmaker working in the 21st-century blu-ray aesthetic.

Mr. Harris himself notes that it is not the film that won the Oscar 35 years ago anymore. I would love to see this film in its new digital glory, but will no doubt never have a chance to see the "original" '70s version again.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

-Trisha

Choichi Imada, film technician

2009-02-12T20:56:00.001-08:00

(First Part)

Although meavy he does't knows the archivists’ slogan “Nitrate Won’t Wait”, Choichi Imada says, “Film-san is not kind enough to wait for us”.

This interview with Mr Imada, a man with a career of more than 50 years in the field of film developing, was made at Ikueisha Co., located in Ekoda, Tokyo. They have always helped StickyFilms (former name of FPS). As you usually never have a chance to see films before restoration, only the result, it’s hard to imagine the difficulty of the process involved in striking a restored print. Hopefully you can see his passion for his job, saving the lives of so many dying films brought to the lab, and how much he loves films, through this interview.

1. The early years

I’ve had some chances to talk to you before, but this time, I’d like to ask you some questions again in more detail. First of all, could you tell me how you got started in this film-related job?

I’m from Shimane prefecture. I came to Tokyo when I was 18 years old. There were no attractive jobs in such a remote countryside area. If there were any, they would be somewhere like a rice shop or barbers. Getting a job there doesn’t mean employment but apprenticeship. At first I tried to go to agricultural school, applied for it secretly and even got accepted, but I had to give up the idea because my family couldn’t afford the tuition. It was not the case in those days that you went to school and did some part time jobs at the same time, like students nowadays. I got to know about scholarships later, but it was too late, because I was making this application in secret, then I totally gave up. When I was 16 or 17 years old I was doing physical work carrying straw bags of rice to the rice vaults at an agricultural cooperative. The grandma of the current president of Ikueisha Co. (Kazuaki Miyamoto’s grandmother is the wife of the founder of Ikueisha, Kamenojo Miyamoto) was from my hometown. At the time, she informed us that the president she was married to was looking for somebody as an assistant, but I was the oldest son, so my dad said no, and my brother was born after my dad came back from the war, so he was still too young. I didn’t know much about motion pictures, however I’d been really interested in “film” for a long time, so I thought, “I really want to try!” and asked my dad. He said at last, “Go ahead, but only for three years”. That’s how I came out to Tokyo. Naturally I had to send money to my family otherwise they would not have been able to live on. Eventually, it became for good, not just for three years.

You said you sneaked into the lectures at Nichidai (Nihon University, College of Art, Department of Cinema) and studied film developing. Was it around that time?

No. It was a little bit later on. Actually when I reached 20 years old, I met up by chance with a guy from my hometown in Ekoda. His father was a schoolteacher, and he was two years or so older than me. As I was gazing at his face, thinking he looked like someone I knew, he came to me and asked, “Good Lord! Are you Choichi-san?” That’s how we made friends with each other. I knew he was in Tokyo somewhere, but had not imagined at all he was in Ekoda. He was a student at Nichidai, so I got to know there was a cinema department for the first time. At the same time, our business got busier and busier. In Nichidai or Waseda, there were so many students studying or shooting films. But if you think about Yokocine (now Yokocine D.I.A.) or Tokyo Lab in Chofu (now IMAGICA), they are really big in scale, aren’t they? Students cannot afford it. In those days there were a lot of small-scale labs all over the place, and Ikueisha happened to be close to Nichidai, so we had many students as our customers, and got along well with them. One of them, who got a job in a TV company and got promoted later on, was saying, “I want to learn about developing”, and we became close friends. When I said to him, “I want to go to the college sometimes”, as a joke he invited me saying, “You will get in OK as long as you’re with me. Why don’t you come?”. “Why not”, indeed. That’s how I sneaked into the campus, and went to classes to listen to the lectures. The professors probably knew that, or I don’t know but they didn’t say anything. Anyway, I was eager to learn, so I listened as hard as I could, so as to memorize everything they said. I had to find time to sneak out from my job for that, so the big man (Kamenojo Mori, the president) was angry with me and yelling like, “Where on earth were you? Did you go to the cinema or something?”

Did you make good use of the things you learned at lectures?

That’s for sure. I learned everything about films, what “gamma” meant, and so on. Actually, in those days, there were no books. No single book about how to prepare developer. Probably because the used bookstore was near the college, I found a very difficult looking reference book about chemical analysis and I bought it anyway, but I didn’t understand a thing. By the way, it was still the black and white era. I didn’t know anything about color. I guess it existed somewhere in the world but up until the 1960s Ikueisha was far away from it. I got to know the difficulty of color when I did a job for Osamu Tezuka, for his TV animation. I had to think about color film that looks fine even in b&w. That was the time I realized how hard it was to work on color films.

Do you often go to movies?

Not at all recently, but well, there was a cinema called Ekoda Bunka when I was young, so I often went there. Now the building is used for a pachinko parlor, I wonder when the cinema was closed… when is the time cinema was told it was over? I graduated from a technical school in 1956, so…,

To be continued...

AMIA Student Chapter Best of 2008 Lists

2009-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

Although it's two months into 2009, we thought it wasn't too late to post some of our top ten lists of movies from 2008. Hopefully these films will remain in good condition so we won't have to restore them in the future. There was a lot to see and we didn't get to them all, but here's the best of what we saw. - Trisha

Michael Ramos Araizaga
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Edge of Heaven
Slumdog Millionaire
I've Loved You So Long
In the Valley of Elah
Jodhaa Akbar
La Zona
No Country for Old Men
Persepolis

Trisha Lendo
Paranoid Park
Che
The Wrestler
Vicky Christina Barcelona
The Exiles
Funny Games
Taxi to the Dark Side
Milk
Hunger
Mister Lonely

Cinematic Experimental Quadtruple Threat at the Panoramic Theater

2009-02-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have wanted to see a Panoramic Theater in action ... for those who love experimental animation .. for those with a thing for artsy drummers ... for those who want to see an archivist operate multiple 16mm projectors - I have a treat for you.

Tomorrow night, Friday Feb. 6, Los Angeles filmmaker Kate Dollenmayer will present her projected and hand-cranked film loop installation inspired by Oskar Fischinger's "Walking From Munich to Berlin" with a live acoustic score by local percussionist and multimedia composer Ross Karre. Visiting Chicago animator Jodie Mack will screen a selection of tiny and medium experimental animations, including "Yard Work is Hard Work," a musical made with cut-outs. Los Angeles-based drummer Corey Fogel will then join forces with Mack for a series of live experiments in film accompanied by improvised live score. Organized by Mark Toscano, Academy Film Archive preservationist.

Friday, February 6
8:00 pm
Velaslavasay Panorama Theater
1122 West 24th Street
Los Angeles, 90007
(213) 746-2166

Tickets $10 - $8 VPES members and students

There is also a Saturday workshop with Jodie Mack at the Echo Park Film Center. All the details here.

An Evening with the Prelinger Archives

2009-02-01T11:11:00.001-08:00

Last night, several MIAS-ers and I went on down to the Silent Movie Theater to see some ephemera presented by Rick Prelinger, archive superstar. He gave a talk about Jamison (Jam) Handy, the wildy prolific 4'11" industrial filmmaker and olympic swimmer, and showed three films made by his company, The Jam Handy Organization. The show was absolutely fantastic and I couldn't be a bigger fan of Rick's 'archives for the people' mentality, which allows you to check out the films for yourself online! I wanted to embed them here, but there seems to be a glitch in the code from Archive.org, so I'll just link to them instead.

We watched Round and Round (1939), Master Hands (1936) and American Look (1958).

Of course, seeing them on 35mm (and for American Look, in scope) is quite a different experience, but that's a story for another time...

Criterion Goes Blu-Ray

2009-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

I recently saw an ad for Criterion's Blu-ray DVDs. They currently have nine titles: The Third Man, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Last Emperor, Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, and El Norte. The 400 Blows, The Wages of Fear, The Last Metro, and In the Realm of the Senses are planned for the Spring. Personally, I don't see how this new format will enhance watching a comedy like Bottle Rocket, but hey, maybe people said the same thing when it came out on Laserdisc.

-Trisha

Oscar fever

2009-01-27T19:26:00.001-08:00

Rachel C. and I have both been having very positive intern experiences at the Academy Film Archive. Rachel is researching and cataloging the Academy's collection of awards ceremony tapes while I am processing a collection of experimental 16mm film prints from the 1960s and 70s. One of the perks of our practicum was attending the Academy Awards Nominee Announcement breakfast last Thursday, Jan. 22. We dragged ourselves to the theater on Wilshire at 5:00 am (!) were served a light breakfast, rubbed elbows with A LOT of press and got a peek at Forrest Whitaker (who I have to say is very dashing up close).

The announcement was over as soon as it began. It was very exciting (and educational) to see THE PRESS in action, a side of the industry I've never seen before. It was just like an old movie. As soon as the last nomination was announced (Best Picture) every one ran outside to the lobby calling in the news or jumping onto their laptops. Afterward I went back to bed, before reporting later that morning to my internship.

Rachel and I agreed: we would get up before dawn in a heartbeat, just to be there again.

The Academy Awards broadcast live on Sunday, February 22.

Rick Prelinger Recommends

2009-01-23T12:00:00.001-08:00

Fresh off the AMIA List serv - in case you missed this one - a very thought-provoking article on the future of books, the current state of libraries, copyright complexities, and an information society reality check.

"Google and the Future of Books" by Robert Darnton. The New York Review of Books. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22281.

Rick Prelinger calls this a must read. Archivists constantly come across copyright issues, but very few understand the laws. The opening lines could easily constitute a major research paper:

"How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright."

Happy reading, everyone.

Introducing the talking movie

2009-01-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

This film describes how sound got added to films, and the bizarre production process involved. Very interesting and funny!

UCLA IS Quiz Night...MIAS is IS too!

2009-01-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

UCLA’s ALA Student Chapter Presents…

QUIZ NIGHT!!!

…with Food, Beverages, and Prizes!!!

When: Friday, Jan. 30th @ 8 pm

Where: GSEIS 111 & 121

Why: To socialize with current UCLA MLIS students and alumni alike, the night before the IS Department’s 50th Anniversary Celebration!

What: Play will consist of six rounds, each containing ten questions. Teams of up to six will test their wits, answering questions in such categories as “pop culture,” “sports and hobbies,” and “name that sound.” Prizes, including the highly coveted Golden Brain Trophy, will be awarded to the winning team.

What else: There will also be board games (and maybe Wii) in an adjoining room as well as free-for-all questions (with prizes!) between each round of play for those who want to come but don’t want to compete.

If you are interested in attending…please email Lindsay Klick at isquiznight@gmail.com with the following info:
1) Your name
2) Whether you are an alumni or current student
3) Let me know if you want to get your quiz on or just want to socialize. (Teams will be formed at the event).

Time Warner wants to disprove 'The Long Tail'

2009-01-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

Posted on Reuters Blogs, January 8, 2009 by Yinka Adegoke

"Time Warner: It's the hits, Stupid"

"Far be it for us to be the umpteenth person to assail Wired editor Chris Anderson’s much quoted and yet much maligned book, The Long Tail, but Time Warner would rather keep churning out more “Dark Knights” and “Harry Potters” than fiddling down its long tail, thank you very much

The Long Tail, as you may recall, argues that thanks to the digitization of content and much lower cost of distribution, content producers will see more of their sales and profits being generated by niche content i.e. the long tail of their sales graph.

But Time Warner, by many measures the world’s largest media company, says that while it is seeing more niche content sales, it would rather the humongous profits you can make with a super hit like “The Dark Knight.”

The executive charged with minding the tills, Chief Financial Officer John Martin, told a Citi investor conference that the future of Time Warner is in the big hits — even on digital outlets like iTunes, where he said it is beginning to see sales trends getting closer to the physical stores’ with their focus on blockbusters.

As consumers have more flexibility and more control over the way they actually consume media, we see more and more of the usage going to the long tail niche content and more and more of the usage going to the long tail and more and more of the usage moving to the very very biggest hits and the biggest brands and that’s really the space we’re playing in.

Martin said his company, which owns cable networks CNN and HBO, magazines like Time and Sports Illustrated, and movie studio Warner Bros, is seeing evidence of an increasing affinity for hits across all areas of its business.

Fewer and fewer DVDs account for more and more of sales according to Martin, the same thing is seen in magazine subscriptions with the top titles growing while some of the smaller titles slow down and more Top 10 shows are being recorded on DVRs by cable subscribers."

“Think of the original code as your camera negative and the proxy as your standard def telecine tapes,”

2009-01-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

I caught Che at the Nuart on Tuesday. As much as I want to resist the film world's transfer to digital, the scenes in the jungle looked amazing. A shot where guerrillas are crossing a waterfall would make a great advertisement for the Red One camera that would convert any die hard film lover. There was an article in last month's Filmmaker magazine that described the Red One camera and the editing process:

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2008/redone.php

-Trisha

AMIA Student Chapter Meeting, Cocktails & Screening

2009-01-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

Meetin, drinkin, screenin.

(what student archivists do best.)

I sent out some emails & made a facebook event today. those are always fun. But just to make it official on our blog --- don't forget --- this Sunday my fellow officers and I are hosting our first AMIA student Chapter event. This quarter is gonna get busy, I know most of you already are making plans for next weekend, so let's get together while we all still can and catch an archival screening too.

Date:	Sunday, January 11, 2009
Time:	4:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:	Boardner's Bar & Grill
Street:	1652 North Cherokee Ave.
City/Town:	Hollywood, CA

This Sunday you (and anyone you'd like to bring along) are invited to our first AMIA Student Chapter event for the 2008-2009 school year. Myself and my newly elected officers will be hosting a brief meeting to cement plans for the year, then there will be cocktails, then we can continue on to Film Forum's Stan & Marilyn Brakhage program at the Egyptian.

**Please arrive on time at 4pm. The Brakhage screening starts at 7pm and is expected to be a full house so we'll need to arrive early for tix and seats.**

Feel free to pass on this invite to any MIAS-ers I might have missed.

Thanks everyone - looking forward to seeing you there!

Brakhage with Brakhage Screening

2009-01-06T15:33:00.001-08:00

Brakhage portrait by Canyon Cinema. See www.canyoncinema.com.

Stan Brakhage has a firm corner of my heart as my favorite experimental filmmaker. Thanks to the 2003 Criterion Collection DVD release, Stan Brakhage: An Anthology many of his 16mm treasures were shared with a wider audience. Criterion plans to release a part two to the DVD. Brakhage's widow Marilyn will be in town to supervise the transfer of her husband's lesser known films. Film Forum and the Academy's Mark Toscano thought since she'd be in town, why not convince her to host a Brakhage program. A handful of these rarely seen films will be screened this Sunday as part of Film Forum's program at the Egyptian in Hollywood.

Here's the info on Film Forum's website.

Sunday, January 11
7:o0pm
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.

This event is expected to sell out.

Frames of film from Window Water Baby Moving (1959), Image from Fred Camper's collection. See http://www.film-makerscoop.com.

For the 16mm Enthusiasts

2009-01-05T15:26:00.001-08:00

Someone associated with one of the founders of Glendale's Alex Theater is selling a complete 16mm vintage 2-projector system on Craigslist.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/clt/974067053.html

In case anyone's looking for a deluxe 16mm movie house set-up. No price is listed.

2008 National Film Registry

2008-12-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't hear, these are the 25 film titles chosen for the National Film Registry this year of the Library of Congress.

1. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

John Huston’s brilliant crime drama contains the recipe for a meticulously planned robbery, but the cast of criminal characters features one too many bad apples. Sam Jaffe, as the twisted mastermind, uses cash from corrupt attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to assemble a group of skilled thugs to pull off a jewel heist. All goes as planned — until an alert night watchman and a corrupt cop enter the picture. Marilyn Monroe has a memorable bit part as Emmerich’s "niece."

2. Deliverance (1972)

Four Atlanta professionals (Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronnie Cox and Jon Voight) head for a weekend canoe trip — and instead meet up with two of the more memorable villains in film history (Billy McKinney and Herbert Coward) in this gripping Appalachian "Heart of Darkness." With dazzling visual flair, director John Boorman and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond infuse James Dickey’s novel with scenes of genuine terror and frantic struggles for survival battling river rapids — and in the process create a work rich with fascinating ambiguities about "civilized" values, urban-versus-backwoods culture, nature, and man’s supposed taming of the environment.

3. (Home movie) Disneyland Dream (1956)

The Barstow family films a memorable home movie of their trip to Disneyland. Robbins and Meg Barstow, along with their children Mary, David and Daniel were among 25 families who won a free trip to the newly opened Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., as part of a "Scotch Brand Cellophane Tape" contest sponsored by 3M. Through vivid color and droll narration ("The landscape was very different from back home in Connecticut"), we see a fantastic historical snapshot of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Catalina Island, Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios and Disneyland in mid-1956. Home movies have assumed a rapidly increasing importance in American cultural studies as they provide a priceless and authentic record of time and place.

4. A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Before Andy Griffith became a television legend playing a likable small-town sheriff, he portrayed a completely different type of celebrity in this dark look at the way sudden fame and power can corrupt. In his film debut, Griffith plays a rural drunk, drifter and country singer who becomes an overnight success when a radio station employee (Patricia Neal) puts him on the air. Behind the scenes, he turns into a power-hungry monster who must be exposed. This film is based on the short story "The Arkansas Traveler" by Budd Schulberg, who also wrote the script for director Elia Kazan.

5. Flower Drum Song (1961)

This film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical marked the first Hollywood studio film featuring performances by a mostly Asian cast, a break from past practice of casting white actors made up to appear Asian. Starring prominent Asian-American actors Nancy Kwan and James Shigeta, this milestone film presented an enduring three-dimensional portrait of Asian America as well as a welcomed, non-cliched portrait of Chinatown beyond the usual exotic tourist façades.

6. Foolish Wives (1922)

Director Erich von Stroheim’s third feature, staged with costly and elaborate sets of Monte Carlo, tells the story of a criminal who passes himself off as a Russian count in order to seduce women of society and steal their money. This brilliant and, at the time, controversial film fully established von Stroheim’s reputation within the industry as a challenging and difficult-to-manage creative genius.

7. Free Radicals (1979)

Born in New Zealand, avant-garde filmmaker Len Lye moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1950. For his four-minute work "Free Radicals" (begun in 1958 and completed in 1979), Lye made scratches directly into the film stock. These scratches became "figures of motion" that appear in the finished film as horizontal and vertical lines and shapes dancing to the music of the Bagirmi tribe in Africa.

8. Hallelujah (1929)

The all-black-cast film "Hallelujah" was a surprising gamble by normally conservative MGM, allowed chiefly because director King Vidor deferred his salary and MGM had proved slow to convert from silent to sound films. Vidor had to shoot silent film of the mass-river-baptism and swamp-murder Tennessee location scenes. He then painstakingly synchronized the dialogue and music. Around themes of religion, sensuality and family stability, Vidor molded a tale of a cotton sharecropper that begins with him losing his year’s earnings, his brother and his freedom and follows him through the temptations of a dancehall girl (Nina Mae McKinney). The passionate conviction of the melodrama and the resourceful technical experiments make "Hallelujah" among the very first indisputable masterpieces of the sound era.

9. In Cold Blood (1967)

In 1959 two men brutally murdered four members of a Holcomb, Kan., family. Truman Capote reported on the infamous incident, first in a series of New Yorker articles and later in his non-fiction novel, "In Cold Blood." With an unsparing neo-realism, director Richard Brooks adapted Capote’s novel, focusing on the motivations, backgrounds, and relationship of the killers, society’s failure to spot potential murderers, and their eventual execution on death row. Filmed in striking black-and-white documentary style by cinematographer Conrad Hall, the film starred then-unknown actors Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, both of whom bore a close physical resemblance to the real-life murderers. Blake, in particular, provides a sensational, multi-layered portrayal. The chilling ending depicts Blake climbing to the gallows to be hanged as we hear his heartbeat slowly come to a stop as the screen fades to black.

10. The Invisible Man (1933)

Universal released many classic horror films during the 1930s and director James Whale crafted some of the greatest from that famous cycle: "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein," "The Old Dark House" and "The Invisible Man." Whale brought a dazzling stylishness to what were essentially low-budget horror films and, in the case of "The Invisible Man," produced sophisticated special effects, aided by John P. Fulton. As in his discovery of Boris Karloff to play "Frankenstein," Whale made another inspirational choice in picking British-born Claude Rains, in his American film debut, to portray H.G. Wells’ tormented scientist Jack Griffin. In the film, after discovering a drug which provides the secret to invisibility, Rains becomes an insane maniac and goes on a power-hungry murder spree, but later makes a deathbed confession to his fiancée: "I meddled in things that man must leave alone."

11. Johnny Guitar (1954)

Often described as the one of the stranger, kinkier Westerns of all time, Nicholas Ray’s film-noiresque "Johnny Guitar" possesses enough symbolism to keep a psychiatrist occupied for years and was a favorite film of French New Wave directors. "Johnny Guitar," filmed in the Trucolor process, also rates significance as one of a few Westerns featuring women as the main stars (Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge). Crawford is the owner of a gambling saloon in an isolated town waiting for the train lines to arrive so she can get rich; McCambridge plays her nemesis. Upon its release, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter panned "Johnny Guitar," but the film’s reputation has soared over time.

12. The Killers (1946)

Director Robert Siodmak took the original Ernest Hemingway short story as the film’s opening point and developed it with an elaborate series of flashbacks, creating a classic example of film noir. Two killers shatter a small town’s quiet before an insurance investigator (Edmond O’Brien) digs up crime, betrayal, and a glamorous woman (Ava Gardner) behind an ex-fighter's death (Burt Lancaster's electrifying film debut).

13. The March (1964)

George Stevens Jr., who headed the United States Information Agency (USIA) Motion Picture Service unit from 1962-67, brought in several young talented documentary filmmakers such as Charles Guggenheim, Carroll Ballard, Kent McKenzie, Leo Seltzer, Terry Sanders, Bruce Herschensohn, and James Blue, who directed "The March." This period ushered in the "Golden Era" of USIA films. Examining the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington from the ground-level and focusing on the idealistic passion, joy and synergy of the crowds, Blue’s documentary lets us see the event take shape from the planning stage — with sound checks and worries about whether people will attend — to the arrival of enormous crowds on parades of trains and buses. It culminates in Martin Luther King’s electrifying "I Have a Dream" speech. These USIA films were rarely seen in America because, fearing propaganda, the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act mandated that no USIA film could be shown domestically without a special act of Congress. These films are being rediscovered because a 1990 act of Congress (P.L. 101-246) authorized domestic screening 12 years after release.

14. No Lies (1973)

Done in faux cinéma vérité style, Mitchell Block’s 16-minute New York University student film begins on a note of insouciant amateurism and then convincingly moves into darker, deeper waters. Opening with a scene of a girl getting ready for a date, the camera-wielding protagonist adroitly orchestrates a mood shift from goofiness to raw pain as an interviewer tears down the girl’s emotional defenses after being raped. One of the first films to deal with the way rape victims are treated when they seek professional help for sexual assault, "No Lies" still possesses a searing resonance and has been widely viewed by nurses, therapists and police officers.

15. On the Bowery (1957)

"On the Bowery" is Lionel Rogosin’s acclaimed, unrelenting docudrama about the infamous New York City zone known as the Bowery. The film focuses on three of its alcoholic skid row denizens and their marginal existence amid the gin mills, missions and flop houses. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote that "this is a dismal exposition to be charging people money to see." Rogosin and his small crew spent months on the Bowery observing and talking with residents. They crafted the film as a "synthesis" of Bowery life, and it remains a wrenching portrait of hopelessness, despair and broken dreams. The film’s writer, Mark Sufrin, wrote in an issue of Sight and Sound magazine: "Very few, once they hit the Bowery, ever leave, are reclaimed, or rehabilitated…I had escaped that frightening place. They still remain."

16. One Week (1920)

"One Week" is the first publicly released two-reel short film starring Buster Keaton. One of Keaton’s finest films and one of the greatest short comedies produced during the 1920s, the film, as critic Walter Kerr noted, shows Keaton as "a garden at the moment of blooming." Considered astonishingly creative even by contemporary standards, "One Week" is rife with hilarious comic, often surrealist, sequences chronicling the ill-fated attempts of a newlywed couple to assemble their new home.

17. The Pawnbroker (1965)

"The Pawnbroker" was the first Hollywood film to depict in a realistic, psychologically probing manner the trauma of a Holocaust survivor, a subject previously taboo because of the fear of poor box office or offending delicate sensitivities. Rod Steiger’s astounding performance — as he tries to repress his memories of the anguish, physical and emotional shame of being an internment-camp inmate — also serves a perfect allegory for American film’s own struggles to represent this major tragedy of 20th century history.

18. The Perils of Pauline (1914)

"The Perils of Pauline" was the first American movie serial. Produced in 20 episodes, in a groundbreaking long-form motion-picture narrative structure, the series starred Pearl White as a young and wealthy heiress whose ingenuity, self-reliance and pluck enable her to regularly outwit a guardian intent on stealing her fortune. The film became an international hit and spawned a succession of elaborate American adventure serial productions that persisted until the advent of regularly scheduled television programs in the 1950s. Although now regarded as a satirical cliché of the movie industry, "Perils of Pauline" in its day inspired a generation of women on the verge of gaining the right to vote in America by showing actress Pearl White performing her own stunts and overcoming a persistent male enemy.

19. Sergeant York (1941)

Gary Cooper, in one of his favorite roles, won his first Oscar for his dead-on portrayal of Tennessee pacifist Sgt. Alvin York, who in an Argonne Forest World War I battle single-handedly captured over 130 German soldiers. A stirring film, which appeared six months before America entered World War II as a nation and inspired Americans through the later conflict, "Sergeant York" contains three main segments all masterfully directed by Howard Hawks: Cooper’s life in Tennessee, the war scenes, and post-war scenes in New York City where his newfound fame briefly tempts Cooper not to return to his Tennessee home. This film is Americana at its finest.

20. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

Special-effects master Ray Harryhausen provides the hero with fantastic antagonists, including a giant cyclops, fire-breathing dragons, and a sword-wielding animated skeleton, all in glorious Technicolor. His stunning Dynamation process, which blended stop-motion animation and live-actions sequences, and a fantastic score by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," "North by Northwest," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Citizen Kane," "Vertigo") makes this one of the finest fantasy films of all time.

21. So’s Your Old Man (1926)

While W.C. Fields’ talents are better suited for sound films — where his verbal jabs and asides still delight and astound — Fields also starred in some memorable silent films. Fields began his career as a vaudevillian juggler and that humor and dexterity shines through in "So’s Your Old Man." The craziness is aided immeasurably through the deft comic touches of director Gregory LaCava. In the film, Fields plays inventor Samuel Bisbee, who is considered a vulgarian by the town’s elite. His road to financial success takes many hilarious detours including a disastrous demo for potential investors, a bungled suicide attempt, a foray into his classic "golf game" routine and an inspired pantomime to a Spanish princess.

22. George Stevens World War II Footage (1943-46)

Having already directed classics such as "Swing Time," "Gunga Din" and "Woman of the Year," director George Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a motion picture unit under Gen. Eisenhower from 1943-46. He shot many hours of footage chronicling D-Day, including rare extant color film of the European war front; the liberation of Paris; American and Soviet forces meeting at the Elbe River; and horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp, thought to be a sub-camp of Buchenwald; and the Dachau concentration camp. The footage has become an essential visual record of World War II and a staple of documentary films.

23. The Terminator (1984)

In 1984, few expected much from the upcoming film "The Terminator." Director James Cameron, a protégé of legendary independent filmmaker Roger Corman, had made only two films previously: the modest sci-fi short "Xenogenesis" in 1978 and "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" in 1981. However, "The Terminator" became one of the sleeper hits of 1984, blending an ingenious, thoughtful script — clearly influenced by the works of sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison — and relentless, non-stop action moved along by an outstanding synthesizer and early techno soundtrack. Most notable was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s star-making performance as the mass-killing cyborg with a laconic sense of humor ("I’ll be back"). Low-budget, but made with heart, verve, imagination, and superb Stan Winston special effects, "The Terminator" remains among the finest science-fiction films in many decades.

24. Water and Power (1989)

Winner of a Sundance Grand Jury prize, Pat O’Neill’s influential experimental work is in his own words "a landscape film that became animated by the beginnings of human stories." In this "city symphony," O’Neill juxtaposes images of downtown Los Angeles with scenes from the Owens Valley, Los Angeles’ source of water. This was a brilliant examination of water in all its forms and the one-sided sharing of energy between the two places, representing nature and civilization.

25. White Fawn’s Devotion (1910)

James Young Deer is now recognized as the first documented movie director of Native American ancestry. Born in Dakota City, Neb., as a member of the Winnebago Indian tribe, James Young Deer (aka: J. Younger Johnston) began his show-business career in circus and Wild West shows in the 1890s. When Pathé Frères of France established its American studio in 1910, in part to produce more authentically American-style Western films, Young Deer was hired as a director and scenario writer. Frequently in collaboration with his wife, actress Princess Red Wing (aka: Lillian St. Cyr), also of Winnebago ancestry, Young Deer is believed to have written and directed more than 100 movies for Pathé from 1910-1913. Many details of Young Deer’s life and movie career remain undocumented and fewer than 10 of his films have been discovered and preserved by U.S. film archives.

Elvis lives and breathes. Apparently.

2008-12-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

You may know about the new "Elvis Duets" CD (released November '08), with duets with Elvis with current artists created in the studio by using digital tools (when Bono sang with Sinatra in 1995 without ever meeting in the same studio it was news). Martina MacBride has gone one better, and offers this "remix" of Elvis's performance of "Blue Christmas" on his '68 "comeback" special.

This is of interest to moving image archivists in that the integrity of the footage has been profoundly changed in order to sell us a new singer. This isn't just cutting to archival scenes, it's intrusion into historical documentation. Elvis's performance and demeanor are irrevocably altered by the intrusion of a singer standing next to him who was not there 40 (!) years ago.

This is close to the "bringing Humphrey Bogart back to life" future that James Cameron is salivating for.

Bordwell on Filmmunich's recent preservations

2008-12-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

Kristen Thompson, who co-writes a fascinating blog on film, film issues, and even preservation with David Bordwell, has written here about Stefan Drössler and the Munich Filmmuseum's recent efforts.

A German silent from Lubitsch, Das Weib des Pharao (1922), has recently been restored with over half an hour of new footage, as has a series of Walter Ruttmann's avant-garde films, collected on DVD.

Bordwell and Thompston wrote a couple definitive books on classical film theory and practice, and their blog is consistantly readable, well-reasoned, non-elitist, and very savvy on how and why we watch filmed. I've spent hours reading the various articles (a greatest hits list is along the right side), and so should you.

"Observations on Film Art and Film Art"

70mm Film Series (West L.A.)

2008-12-11T18:54:00.000-08:00

Laemmle's Royal Theatre is hosting a 70mm film series from Dec. 19-23. The exhibition curator, Jerry A. Blackburn, is screening some cool, rarely seen prints. I encourage everyone to check it out.

Most importantly, proceeds will benefit local charitable organizations (more info below). You can also visit www.laemmle.com for showtimes and the film lineup.

----------

One and All:

The American Diabetes Association Los Angeles, Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic, AIDS Walk Los Angeles and The Laemmle Theatres Charitable Foundation will be the beneficiary of The 70/70 Film Series celebrating the 70th anniversary of Laemmle Theatres with a series of epic films for charity in stunning 70mm..

By purchasing 1 or more tickets to any of the films you will be donating even if you do not physically come to the theatre. I would love each and every one of you to come and attend all of the films if possible. All ticket sales (minus film cost) will be donated to the charities. Laemmle Theatres will also be donating a portion of the concession sales as well.

Purchasing tickets online is easy at www.laemmle.com. However, if you wish to make a donation to the charities without purchasing tickets you may do so by sending check or money order to Laemmle Theatres Charitable Foundation, C/O LEDJER Film & Theatre Services PO Box 1221, Burbank, CA 91507-1221. Donations must be postmarked by January 2, 2009 for this event

These awesome, rarely seen 70mm prints will be showing from December 19th to 23rd and are hosted by Laemmle Theatres & LEDJER Film & Theatre Services. They will take place at the Laemmle Royal Theatre. See the attached flyer for a complete list of titles, showtimes and other information. For any updates and a list of celebrity appearances, please go to www.laemmle.com. Please check the website frequently for updates.

For a trailer on the event go to www.LEDJER.com.

Please don’t forget to invite everyone you know.

See you At the Movies!

Sincerely,
Jerry A. Blackburn
LEDJER Film & Theatre Services
(818) 752-6584

From AMIA-List:

2008-12-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

A frustration on National Tango Day

Today is National Tango Day, an informal holiday
created by Ben Molar in 1980 to celebrate Carlos Gardel's and Julio De
Caro's birthday. An excuse to gather together with friends that
eventually became a more established event.

When I wrote about frustration is because I'm thinking about the
films Carlos Gardel made for Paramount. Almost all of them survive and
although quality version exist, they are always available in lousy
dupes that are virtually unwatchable.

The biggest crime is what happened with EL DIA QUE ME QUIERAS in
which an entire sequence, featuring a song (not a tango), has been
edited out of the film.

I still don't understand why neither the major companies (either
Paramount, Warner, or Universal) nor the minor but prestigious ones
ever bothered to consider these films that are in the public domain (including the songs).

Here are some links to that entire scene that has been removed from all
DVD versions (one company produced the lousy master, others have copied
it). One video features something that the other does not have:

This one was lifted from Spain's TVE:

This one was lifted from a Chilean channel:

This one has a horrible visual quality, but features the opening:

One with good quality but horrible sound:

I hope you can understand my frustration.
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/grabacion.aspx?id=770
Saludos
JORGE FINKIELMAN

Star Trek has been Lucas-a-fied

2008-12-10T18:45:00.001-08:00

Star Trek the original series has recently been remastered for DVD release. Personally, I can't think of anything more inappropriate to add CGI to. Wired has the full story.

I've embedded the before and after of two clips. The only clip of the original show I could find has a new soundtrack added that is a little overpowering, so you may want to mute that one. That clip also has some extra scenes edited into it, but you'll get the gist of the changes.

-Trisha

Archives Event

2008-12-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Please join us to celebrate an Archival Event at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library & Archives.

Monday, December 15, 2008 from Noon-2PM.

"Roman Freulich, From Poland to Hollywood: A Life In Pictures"

More information and location available here: http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/sbuchanan/.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you there!

Unidentified Films on Flickr

2008-12-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

While doing some research for one of my finals today, I came across the Flickr account for AMIA's Nitrate Film Interest Group. They've made an account for archives to upload stills from unidentified films in hopes of having them identified. Most of the stills are from early cinema and make for beautiful "unmoving" pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfig/sets/

-Trisha

Sleeping Beauty controversy

2008-12-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

The remastered Disney's Sleeping Beauty was the major screening at AMIA this year. They screened it for us at Savannah's Lucas theater on a 4k projector (loaned from SONY) off an HDCAM master. My eyes, who grew up watching the VHS, were overwhelmed by the unbelievable sharpness and color saturation. It seems many others are experiencing the same issue, especially when viewing the new Blu-Ray disc next to previous versions.

The blog Cartoon Brew handles the discussion. The comments are fascinating and entertaining:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/sleeping-beauty-blu-ray-doesnt-mean-better

and here's some real-life reference shots courtesy of Google's LIFE magazine image collection:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&q=source%3Alife+sleeping+beauty+grant+cartoon&btnG=Search+Images

Student Chapter Meeting

2008-12-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Please save the date(s) for the week of January 5, 2009 - the first week of Winter quarter at UCLA - for an AMIA Student Chapter meeting/dance party. Ok. The dance part is still being negotiated, but I can guarantee your newly elected Executive Officers will bring the party.

Michael inspired me to do some YouTube restoration digging. This is a great example of an A/B roll film to video transfer.

Elections Results

2008-12-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

AMIA Student Chapter Officers

The votes have been tallied and it was a CLOSE call for VP and Secretary. But we have:

President: Meredith Rimmer, Moving Image Archive Studies Program
Vice President: Trisha Lendo, Moving Image Archive Studies Program
Secretary: Amy Jo Davitz, Moving Image Archive Studies Program
Treasurer: Alice Royer, Moving Image Archive Studies Program

Congratulations everyone!

Los Angeles Conservancy - Historic Theatre District Walking Tour

2008-12-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Last Saturday, Roger and I went on the Historic Theatre District Walking Tour. The tour takes groups up S. Broadway in downtown L.A, where there are several old movie palaces, most of which are no longer used as theaters. The most surprising part of tour was going into the theaters now used as stores and seeing the remnants of the palaces. The former Arcade theater still had the curtain and light fixtures remaining. Here's some pictures:

Inside the Cameo Theater:

Inside the Arcade Theater:

- Trisha

Fresh from the AMIA-List Serv

2008-12-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

The Moffitt Library at UC Berkeley has digitized the only know film footage of Mark Twain, shot sometime between 1900 and 1910.

See it here:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/videodir/asx2/7110.asx

(Requires Windows Media or Flip4Mac plug-in for Mac)

From:Gary Handman, Director Media Resources Library, Moffitt Library, UC Berkeley
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC

*Who put it up on YouTube on October 1, 2007?

Elections

2008-11-21T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's time to vote for the new Executive Committee of the AMIA Student
Chapter at UCLA. The Executive Committee serves as the governing body
for our student chapter. All student chapter Membership in the
organization is open to all currently enrolled students at the
University of California, Los Angeles interested in the moving image
archival profession.

From the Constitution of the AMIA Student Chapter at UCLA. source:
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/amia/constitution.html.

V. DUTIES OF OFFICERS:

A. The President will act as chair of the Executive Committee and
preside over chapter meetings. The president will be responsible for
all chapter correspondence, functions, and activities. The president
will prepare an agenda for chapter meetings to be dispersed to its
membership at least one week prior to the meeting. The president will
also maintain communication with AMIA.

B. The Vice-President will assume the duties of the President in the
latter's absence and in the event the position of President becomes
vacant. The Vice-President will assist the President as directed.

C. The Secretary will be responsible for chapter correspondence and
recordkeeping, including taking minutes of meetings, recording student
membership attendance, maintaining event information, disseminating
the agenda and other information to the membership, and preparing the
annual report.

D. The Treasurer will be responsible for maintaining financial
records, coordinating fundraising, and overseeing chapter funds.

Keep in mind no person can hold two positions at the same time. The
Executive Committee can revise the officer's duties by revising the
Student Chapter constitution.

If you want to run for one of the above positions, shoot a short email
to all of the people (reply all) on this email explaining which
position you're running for and why.

The votes will be tallied and winners announced next Wednesday, November 26.

Happy voting!

THE ROBE, Out of the past screenings

2008-11-21T02:25:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 24th

THE ROBE
(1953) Directed by Henry Koster
20th Century Fox film preservationist, Schawn Belston, will introduce this restoration of the studio's first feature film in CinemaScope. Starring Richard Burton as a Roman tribune from a patrician family who works for Pontius Pilate, and based on a Lloyd C. Douglas novel, this reworking of the story of Christ's crucifixion focuses on the robe Jesus wore at the time of his death. Epic in scope (no pun intended), The Robe won Oscars for Best Art Direction and Costume Design, while Burton, cinematographer Leon Shamroy and producer Frank Ross were also nominated.

In person: Schawn Belston, Vice President of Asset Management & Film Preservation, 20th Century Fox.
The Robe has been restored by the Academy Film Archive and Twentieth Century Fox with funding provided by The Film Foundation.

Based on the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Producer: Frank Ross. Screenplay: Philip Dunne, Albert Maltz. Cinematographer: Leon Shamroy. Cast: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie. 35mm, 135 min.

FREE ADMISION
Billy Wilder Theater
Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.206.8013

Memoirs of a Mexican Screening tomorrow

2008-11-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

Re-posted:

On Thursday, November 20 the Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters, in collaboration with the Carmen Toscano Foundation, Mexico Tourism Board, The Consulate General of Mexico, The Mexican Cultural Institute and the Million Dollar Theater, will present the showcase of Memoirs of a Mexican (1950), a documentary film produced by Carmen Toscano (1910-1988) featuring newsreels shot by her father, filmmaker Salvador Toscano (1872-1947).

Memoirs of a Mexican (1950) presents real scenes with the likes of Porfirio Diaz, Francisco I. Madero, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregón. The film showcases rare glimpses of Mexican history that include the Celebrations of Mexico’s Independece (1908), the Tragic ten days (1913) and The invasion of Veracruz (1914).

The film will be introduced by Dr. Verónica Zarate Toscano, representative of the Toscano Foundation, who will speak about the legacy of Salvador Toscano and the work of the foundation in the preservation of Mexican cinema.

When: Thursday Nov. 20 / 7:30 pm

Where: Million Dollar Theater
307 South Broadway Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90013

*Entry: FREE / Voluntary 5$ donation /
$25 film and reception offered by Chichen Itza Restaurant

Info.: (310) 526-1480
www.milliondollartheater.com
cervantescenter@yahoo.com

*Part of the proceeds will be destined to the Carmen Toscano Foundation and the Friends of the Million Dollar, a group in charge of efforts to restore the historic Million Dollar Theater.

In 1950, Carmen Toscano Moreno concluded the production, direction and edition of the documentary film Memoirs of a Mexican, a project she began in 1947 right after the passing of her father, filmmaker Salvador Toscano Barragan. For the making of this documentary Carmen classified, organized and selected over fifty thousand feet of footage shot from 1897 to 1929. Due to the archive’s historic value Carmen went on to establish the Salvador Toscano Historic Film Archive.

The Carmen Toscano Foundation was established in 1992 with the purpose of preserving the Salvador Toscano Historic Film Archive, the film archives donated by Jesus H. Abitia, Alberto Licerio, Ezequiel Colin Garces, Concepcion Tafoya and archives documenting the Mexican Presidency. As a result the Carmen Toscano Foundation has established itself as a film archive specialized in preserving newsreels and documentary films related to Mexican history. www.fundaciontoscano.org

The Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters is a non profit organization established with the goal of producing quality cultural events www.cervantescenter.org

Excerpts from Memoirs of a Mexican (1950):

Celebration of Mexico’s Independence (1910)

Death of President Porfirio Díaz (Paris, July 2nd, 1915)

Assassination of Pancho Villa (1923)

For more details about this event, including maps, comments, and other attendees, visit the event page.

Indian Cinema Society Screening tomorrow

2008-11-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

The newly gathered Indian Cinema Society at UCLA, hosted by our own MIAS-ters, Vishnu Jani, Shiraz Bhathena, and Nina Rao, invites everyone to their inaugural screening tomorrow of Johnny Gaddaar.

Date:	Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Time:	7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:	Dodd Hall 170, UCLA

A message from the Inidian Cinema Society's facebook site:

Join us for the inaugural screening of the Indian Cinema Society.

"Johnny Gaddaar" is a delicious thriller"
-Rajeev Masand (CNN-IBN)

"Johnny Gaddaar is by far one of the best thrillers witnessed in Hindi cinema"
-Indiatimes.com

"Well crafted, with some great moments, Johnny Gaddaar is not just style, but substance as well."
-Taran Adarsh (IndiaFM)

"A taut and stylish tribute to the thrillers of James Hadley Chase and legendary Indian filmmaker Vijay
Anand, Sriram Raghavan's "Johnny Gaddaar" simultaneously revisits and breaks numerous noir
conventions through a fresh story-telling style full of twists and turns that will leave the audience on the
edge of their seats"
-Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

DON'T MISS IT!!!

(in Hindi with English subtitles)

The screening will be followed by a discussion and ICS meeting.

RSVP: indiancinemasociety@gmail.com

Here's a map/directions to Dodd Hall.

Image source: http://desimovi.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

Harold Brown 1919-2008

2008-11-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

Harold Brown R.I.P.

Brown of the British Film Institute passed away this Friday, November 14. He essentially invented the film preservation field, although his name may not be found in many history books. Most notably he coined the term, "vinegar syndrome". The Bioscope blog has written up a nice memorial.

http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/harold-brown-rip/

Welcome class of 2009 & 2010

2008-11-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome! Welcome to the weblog of the Association of Moving Image Artists (AMIA) Student Chapter at UCLA. Here we will share news, events, local screenings of note, articles and books to discuss, professional opportunities, related rants and more.

Coming soon:

- Reports back from AMIA Conference 2008!

- Events from the Indian Cinema Society at UCLA!
- Exclusive photos!
- Useful links for your scholarly needs!
- Minutes from our first meeting!

For more info and a history of our organization, please see: http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/amia

Please note: This is an invitation only blog published by members of the AMIA Student Council. If you feel like you have been left off the invitation list to publish please contact Meredith @ mrimmer515-at-ucla-dot-edu.

Thank you.