NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION AWARDS PRESERVATION GRANTS TO 27 FILM ARCHIVES
Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7291, lambert@filmpreservation.org)
San Francisco, CA (June 16, 2010)—Billy Woodberry’s independently produced Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), a portrait of an African American father struggling to support his family in Los Angeles, is among the 57 films green-lighted for preservation through National Film Preservation Foundation grants announced today. The 27 award-winning institutions will receive preservation funds made available through The Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2008.
“Bless Their Little Hearts hasn't yet found its rightful place as a key film in the history of cinema, but it has been a great inspiration for those who have seen it,” said Thom Anderson, who featured clips from the feature in his documentary about the portrayal of Los Angeles in film, Los Angeles Plays Itself. “Thanks to this grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, this important work will be safeguarded and made available to the national audience it deserves.” UCLA Film & Television Archive will work with the filmmaker on the project using the original production materials.
Among the other films singled out for preservation are Money at Work (1933), produced by the American Bankers Association to restore faith in small-town banks at the height of the Great Depression; 21st Biennial Convention of the Chinese American Citizen’s Alliance (1950), showing a national civil rights organization that brought together Chinese American leaders; Twin Peaks Tunnel (1917), documenting the construction of the trolley tunnel that opened western San Francisco to commuters; In Artificial Light (1982), Curt Royston’s portrait of New York artists, including Madonna Ciccone before her break-through; shorts by the New York performance artist Stuart Sherman; George Stoney’s environmental documentary The Hudson Shad (1973), narrated by Pete Seeger; Kartemquin Films’ The Chicago Maternity Center (1976); a 1934 portrait of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Indiana; and home movies showing the Flying Concellos (1937), a 1920s hunting expedition to the Arctic, and peanut picking in Georgia in the 1940s.
The NFPF preservation grants, funded through the leadership of the Library of Congress, provide support to create a film preservation master and two access copies of each work. Films saved through the NFPF programs are made available for on-site research and are seen widely through screenings, exhibits, DVDs, television broadcasts, and the Internet.
Since created by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has supported film preservation in 214 archives, libraries, and museums across 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and has helped save some 1,630 films.
The spring grant recipients are:
- Adirondack Forty-Sixers (NY)
- American Museum of Natural History (NY)
- Anthology Film Archives (NY)
- Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum (IN)
- Bowdoin College (ME)
- Buffalo Bill Historical Center (WY)
- Dartmouth College (NH)
- Emory University (GA)
- Hunterdon County Historical Society (NJ)
- Huntington Library (CA)
- Illinois State University (IL)
- Indiana State Archives (IN)
- Johns Hopkins University (MD)
- Kartemquin Films (IL)
- Knox County Public Library (TN)
- Mooresville Public Library (NC)
- New York Public Library (NY)
- New York University (NY)
- Niles Essanay Film Museum (CA)
- North Carolina State Archives (NC)
- Portland State University (OR)
- Rhode Island Historical Society (RI)
- Swarthmore College (PA)
- Tennessee Archive of the Moving Image and Sound (TN)
- UCLA Film & Television Archive (CA)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)
- University of Pennsylvania (PA)
The National Film Preservation Foundation is the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. The NFPF is the charitable affiliate of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. For the complete list of projects supported by the NFPF, visit the NFPF Web site: www.filmpreservation.org.
# # # # #