NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION AWARDS SUMMER PRESERVATION GRANTS
26 Films Pegged for Preservation
Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7294, lambert@filmpreservation.org)
San Francisco, CA (September 18, 2012)—The Boy Mayor (1914), a Hollywood-produced short made in Portland, Oregon; the Tinsel town satire Hollywouldn’t (1925); Exploratorium (1974), the Academy Award–nominated short about San Francisco’s innovative science museum; early campaign footage of Harvey Milk and George Wallace; Lost Ceremonies of the Hopi Cliff Dwellers (1958), documenting the Native American troupe that helped secure federal protection of sacred Hopi dance ceremonies; Rainbow Black: Poet Sarah W. Fabio (1976); and Punish or Train (1937), about California’s juvenile correction system, are among 26 films green-lighted for preservation through grants announced today by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Awards went to 19 institutions.
“We are thrilled to be able to save The Boy Mayor documenting Portland’s progressive-era experiment to give teenagers a say in local government,” said Michelle Kribs, the film preservationist of the Oregon Historical Society. “Our copy—which is thought to be the only print to survive—was donated to us by the late Bill O’Farrell, who headed film preservation operations at the National Archives of Canada for many years. Thanks to Bill and the NFPF, this fascinating piece of Oregon history will once again be seen by the public.”
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 widely exhibited through screenings, museum installations, DVDs, television broadcasts, and the Internet.
Since created by Congress in 1996, the NFPF helped save more than 1,975 films through grants and project funding to 253 institutions across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The NFPF also publishes the award-winning Treasures from American Film Archives DVD series and organizes international projects to preserve and make available copies of “lost” American silent era films found abroad. 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 grant recipients are:
- Alabama Department of Archives and History (AL)
- Anthology Film Archives (NY)
- California State Archives (CA)
- Carnegie Mellon University, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (PA)
- Center for Home Movies (CA)
- Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum (CO)
- Council Bluffs Public Library (IA)
- Exploratorium (CA)
- George Eastman House (NY)
- Indiana University (IN)
- Kartemquin (IL)
- Montana Historical Society (MT)
- Oregon Historical Society (OR)
- Trisha Brown Dance Company (NY)
- UCLA Film & Television Archive (CA)
- University of Mississippi Medical Center (MS)
- University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (PA)
- University of Virginia (VA)
- Verde Valley Archaeology Center (AZ)
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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