ABOUT THE NFPF

Exhibition Reel of Two Color Film (ca. 1929)

An experimental color short in Brewster Color, preserved by George Eastman House and presented on the More Treasures DVD set.

2009 AVANT-GARDE MASTERS GRANTS ANNOUNCED BY THE NFPF AND THE FILM FOUNDATION
Mark Rappaport’s Local Color Among Six Films Receiving Preservation Funds

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

San Francisco, CA (April 23, 2009)—Mark Rappaport’s Local Color (1977), a deadpan melodrama about hopelessly interconnected lives, and five other landmark experimental films will soon be saved thanks to Avant-Garde Masters Grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation. Recipients of the $50,000 award are George Eastman House, Anthology Film Archives, Center for Visual Music, and the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin.

Heralded by film critic Roger Ebert as a “strange and wonderful movie,” Local Color spins a mordant tale about eight individuals trapped in a web of intertangled relationships and dreams. As complications beget complications, the line between “real” and “surreal” grows increasingly hard to draw. George Eastman House will collaborate with the filmmaker to preserve the 16mm feature from the original source materials.

Also selected for preservation are three surrealist shorts by San Francisco artist Sidney Peterson (Anthology Film Archives); Norman Mailer’s first film, an untitled profile of a desperate woman considering an illegal abortion (University of Texas at Austin); and an early multi-projector piece by experimental animator Oskar Fischinger (Center for Visual Music).

The Avant-Garde Masters Grants are the first awards targeting the preservation of American experimental film. Funded by The Film Foundation and managed by the National Film Preservation Foundation, the program encourages archives to work directly with filmmakers to save works significant to the development of the avant-garde in America. Since 2003, the annual grants have preserved films by Kenneth Anger, Samuel Beckett, Rudy Burckhardt, Abigail Child, Tom Chomont, Bruce Conner, Hollis Frampton, Ernie Gehr, Larry Gottheim, George and Mike Kuchar, Gregory Markopoulos, Jonas Mekas, Tom Palazzolo, Larry Rivers, Carolee Schneemann, Frank Stauffacher, Andy Warhol, and Lawrence Weiner. The full roster of projects is posted on the NFPF Web site, www.filmpreservation.org.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. The NFPF has supported film preservation in 46 states and the District of Columbia and has helped save more than 1,420 films and collections. The NFPF is the charitable affiliate of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

The Film Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1990 by Martin Scorsese. The foundation is dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history, and provides substantial annual support for preservation and restoration projects at the leading film archives. Through its preservation and education programs, the foundation is instrumental in raising awareness of the urgent need to preserve films and has helped to save over 525 motion pictures. Joining Scorsese on the board are: Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Curtis Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, George Lucas, Alexander Payne, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg. The Film Foundation is aligned with the Directors Guild of America, whose President and Secretary-Treasurer serve on the foundation’s board.

# # # # #