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.

NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION AWARDS 35 PRESERVATION GRANTS
National Film Registry Title The Jungle and Hoagy Carmichael’s Home Movies To Be Saved

Contact: Jeff Lambert (415-392-7294, lambert@filmpreservation.org)

San Francisco, CA (June 24, 2014)—The National Film Preservation Foundation today announced grants to save 65 films, including Hoagy Carmichael’s home movies of his family’s first Hollywood years and A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer, actor Richard Beymer’s documentary short made in the midst of the Freedom Summer civil rights campaign. All told, awards went to 35 institutions across 22 states.

“With these NFPF grants, archives around the country will be able to preserve important pieces of our heritage and make the films available once again,” said Jennifer Horne, a member of the National Film Preservation Board and professor at UC Santa Cruz who served on the panel that reviewed proposals from around the country. “From early color footage of Yellowstone National Park to The Jungle (1967), a vivid portrayal of Philadelphia street life made by teen gang members that was named to the National Film Registry in 2009, these films demand our attention and deserve to be viewed anew.”

Among the other films pegged for preservation are ornithological studies of New York’s Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge; I’ll Say He Forgot (1920), a long lost two-reel comedy about an absent-minded bridegroom; six films from the Youth Film Distribution Company, an organization that provided hands-on filmmaking experience for New York teens; films taken by the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory that improved prediction of storm patterns; anthropologist Leopold Pospisil’s 1950s documentary about a Papuan tribe in West New Guinea; early performance art films by Vito Acconci; the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s documentation of the construction of the U.S.S. Akron, one of the largest airships of its time; and home movies of Pittsburgh’s African American community in the 1940s, Maryland’s Ocean City Hurricane of 1933, the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in Humboldt County, and New Orleans Mardi Gras carnival balls. Click here for a full list.

The NFPF preservation grants target newsreels, silent-era films, 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 its creation by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has provided preservation support to 272 institutions and saved more than 2,135 films through grants and collaborative projects. The NFPF also publishes 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 operating and project funding from other sources.

The grant recipients are:

  • Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AK)
  • American Museum of Natural History (NY)
  • Anthology Film Archives (NY)
  • Belleville Public Library and Information Center (NJ)
  • Carnegie Museum of Art (PA)
  • Emory University (GA)
  • Film-Makers' Cooperative (NY)
  • George Eastman House (NY)
  • Indiana University (IN)
  • Keene State College (NH)
  • Maryland Historical Society (MD)
  • Medical University of South Carolina (SC)
  • National Archives and Records Administration (DC)
  • National WWII Museum (LA)
  • Nebraska State Historical Society (NE)
  • New York Public Library (NY)
  • Newark Public Library (NJ)
  • NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (OK)
  • North Scituate Public Library (RI)
  • Oregon Historical Society (OR)
  • Pacific Film Archive (CA)
  • Senator John Heinz History Center (PA)
  • Silent Cinema Presentations (NY)
  • Stanford University, Hoover Institution (CA)
  • State Archives of North Carolina (NC)
  • Tulane University, Amistad Research Center (LA)
  • UCLA Film & Television Archive (CA)
  • University of Akron (OH)
  • University of Arizona (AZ)
  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)
  • University of South Carolina (SC)
  • University of Southern California (CA)
  • Washington University (MO)
  • Wisconsin Historical Society (WI)
  • Yale University (CT)

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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