NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
AWARDS FILM PRESERVATION GRANTS TO 31 ARCHIVES

Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7291, lambert@filmpreservation.org)

San Francisco, CA (June 11, 2008)—Through grants announced today by the National Film Preservation Foundation, 31 archives, libraries, and museums will preserve a fascinating selection of culturally significant American films, including The Salvation Hunters (1925), the feature film debut of director Josef von Sternberg.

"The Salvation Hunters, a starkly poetic tale of poverty and depression, was hissed at its premiere and later hailed as a masterpiece by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin," said film scholar Tag Gallagher, who has written about Josef von Sternberg. "It is good news indeed that a restoration of this groundbreaking feature is in the works." The Salvation Hunters will be preserved by the Museum of Modern Art.

The 52 films slated for preservation are a vibrant affirmation of the diversity of America's film heritage. Among the award-winning projects are Siege (1940), Julien Bryan's Academy Award–nominated short documenting the fall of Poland; silent Westerns starring Tom Mix and Harey Carey, Sr.; The Goldberg Variations (1971), a filmed performance of Jerome Robbins' Bach-inspired ballet; a Mennonite documentary about missionary work among the Cheyenne; home movies of Wyoming dude ranches and Carolina plantations; The Fable of He and She (1974), a claymation parable about gender stereotypes; a 1910s film thought to be by James Young Deer, the first Native American director; 1930s footage of regional circus troupes; a small town baby parade in the 1920s; a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the legendary Blues radio show King Biscuit Time; and avant-garde works by Jordan Belson, Mary Ellen Bute, Amos Poe, and Chick Strand. The grants provide funds to create a preservation master and two viewing copies of each film. Ten recipients are using NFPF support to initiate film preservation programs at their institutions.

The NFPF grants target historically and culturally significant motion pictures that are without commercial owners and unlikely to survive without public support. The awards distribute federal funds authorized by The National Film Preservation Foundation Act of 2005 and secured through the leadership of the Library of Congress. Since created by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has assisted 176 institutions across 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and has helped save more than 1,322 films and footage collections.

The spring grant recipients are:

• Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (Alaska)
• Anthology Film Archives (New York)
• Appalshop (Kentucky)
• Buffalo Bill Historical Center (Wyoming)
• Center for Visual Music (California)
• Chicago Film Archives (Illinois)
• Circus World Museum (Wisconsin)
• Dover Free Public Library (New Jersey)
• Emory University (Georgia)
• George Eastman House (New York)
• Louisiana State Museum (Louisiana)
• Marist College (New York)
• Mennonite Church of the USA (Kansas)
• Mills College (California)
• Museum of Modern Art (New York)
• National Center for Jewish Film (Massachusetts)
• National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)
• New York Public Library, Donnell Media Center (New York)
• New York Public Library, Jerome Robbins Dance Division (New York)
• New York University (New York)
• Northeast Historic Film (Maine)
• Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma)
• Pacific Film Archive (California)
• Pima Air and Space Museum (Arizona)
• Science Museum of Minnesota (Minnesota)
• UCLA Film & Television Archive (California)
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.)
• University of Georgia (Georgia)
• University of Montana-Missoula (Montana)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina)
• Yale University (Connecticut)