NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION AWARDS 25 PRESERVATION GRANTS
Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Its Grant Program and 2,400 Films Saved
Contact: David Wells (415-392-7291, wells@filmpreservation.org)
San Francisco, CA (July 18, 2018)—The National Film Preservation Foundation today announced grants to save 35 films, including Street Corner Stories (1977), Warrington Hudlin’s documentary about the vernacular storytelling practices of a New Haven corner store’s African American customers, and Inquiring Nuns (1968), Gordon Quinn’s cinema-verité documentary in which a pair of nuns asks Chicagoans on the street whether or not they’re happy with their lives.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the NFPF’s grant program. Since 1998, the NFPF has provided preservation resources to 296 organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to help save 2,400 films. The grants are made possible by funds authorized through The Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2016, secured through the leadership of the Library of Congress, and the contributions of public-spirited donors. Films preserved through our programs are used in education and seen widely through screenings, exhibits, DVDs, television broadcasts, and the Internet. A curated selection of the preserved films is available for viewing on the NFPF website, and more than 200 additional titles have been made accessible by our grant recipients.
“For twenty years the National Film Preservation Foundation has reshaped the world of orphan film preservation through its grant program, saving overlooked and unseen moving images that would have been lost without public support” said Wendy Shay, the National Film Preservation Board member who served on the panel that reviewed this year’s proposals. “The movies saved in this round are no exception. From silent-era shorts to activist documentaries, they demonstrate the incredible variety of American moviemaking, stretching from 1915 to 1988 and encompassing practically every genre under the sun.”
Among the other films funded for preservation are The Big Lever: Party Politics in Leslie County, Kentucky (1982), a documentary about rural straight-party-ticket voting; Won by a Sweet (1929), a sponsored film from the National Confectioners’ Association about the health benefits of candy for athletes; The Spider and the Fly (1938), one of the earliest surviving American home movies with synchronous sound; Jane’s Declaration of Independence (1915), a rediscovered silent two-reeler, filmed in the Presidio of San Francisco; experimental films by Stephanie Beroes and Chris Kraus; footage of the 1930s Rainbow Bridge–Monument Valley Expedition; and home movies of wartime Europe taken by a Jewish American soldier. For a full list, click here.
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.
The grant recipients are:
- Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AK)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (NY)
- American Museum of Natural History (NY)
- Amistad Research Center (LA)
- Anthology Film Archives (NY)
- Appalshop (KY)
- Atlanta History Center (GA)
- Chicago Film Archives (IL)
- Chicago Film Society (IL)
- Fort Lewis College (CO)
- Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio (MA)
- George Eastman Museum (NY)
- Kartemquin Films (IL)
- Knox County Public Library (TN)
- Montana Historical Society (MT)
- New York University (NY)
- Nicholls State University (LA)
- Pacific Film Archive (CA)
- San Francisco Silent Film Festival (CA)
- UCLA Film & Television Archive (CA)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (DC)
- University of Akron (OH)
- University of Oregon (OR)
- Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
- Yale Film Study Center (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 website: www.filmpreservation.org.
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