NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
AWARDS 22 PRESERVATION GRANTS
John Carpenter’s Student Film and 1925 Doc on Buffalo Soldiers Will Be Saved
Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7291, lambert@filmpreservation.org)
San Francisco, CA (October 26, 2011)—Director John Carpenter’s first student film at USC and a 1925 newsreel portrait of the celebrated Buffalo Soldier regiment at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the African American 10th Cavalry Unit, are two of the 28 films slated for saving, thanks to grants announced today by The National Film Preservation Foundation. Awards went to 22 institutions.
"The films selected for preservation this grant cycle demonstrate the breadth and dynamism of American filmmaking,” said Stephen Gong from the Center for Asian American Media, who served on the panel that reviewed proposals from around the country. "From John Carpenter’s early horror short to documents of Native American life, the films being saved run the gamut. With help from the NFPF, they will soon be available to new audiences.”
Among the other works slated for preservation are home movies from opening day at Walt Disney World; a 1915 documentary showing how money was printed at the American Bank Note Company; two Chuck Olin films about Chicago; Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter, a National Film Registry documentary about the Yup’ik people of Emmonak, Alaska; A Weave of Time, a portrait of four generations of a Navajo family; a film inspired by the Hal Roach Our Gang series shot in Madison, Wisconsin; home movies from African American jazz musician Marie Dickerson Coker showing post-Pearl Harbor Honolulu; and two films by artist Peggy Ahwesh. For a full list, visit www.filmpreservation.org.
The NFPF preservation grants target newsreels, silent-era films, documentaries, culturally important home movies, avant-garde films, and endangered independent productions that fall under the radar of commercial preservation programs. The awards provide support to create a film preservation master and two access copies of each work. Films saved through the NFPF programs are made available to the public for on-site research and are seen widely through screenings, exhibits, DVDs, television broadcasts, and the Internet.
Since it was created by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has provided preservation support to 239 institutions and saved more than 1,850 films and collections through grants and collaborative projects. The NFPF also produces the award-winning Treasures from American Film Archives DVD series, which makes available rare films preserved by public and nonprofit archives that have not been commercially distributed. The NFPF receives federal money through the Library of Congress to distribute as grants but raises all operating and project funding from other sources.
The 22 summer grant recipients are:
- Appalachian Mountain Club (MA)
- Bard College (NY)
- Chicago Film Archives (IL)
- Country Music Hall of Fame (TN)
- Emory University (GA)
- Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum (CA)
- Medical University of South Carolina (SC)
- Montana Historical Society (MT)
- National Center for Jewish Film (MA)
- National Museum of American History (DC)
- National Museum of Natural History (DC)
- North Carolina State Archives (NC)
- ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives (CA)
- Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TX)
- UCLA Film & Television Archive (CA)
- University of Alaska (AK)
- University of Arizona (AZ)
- University of Central Florida (FL)
- University of Pennsylvania (PA)
- University of South Carolina (SC)
- University of Southern California (CA)
- Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WI)
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.
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