NFPF News

Archive Spotlight: Chicago Film Archives

Lord Thing (1970) by DeWitt Beall, courtesy Chicago Film Archives.

One of the things we hope to do regularly on this blog is bring attention to some of the work being done by the organizations who participate in our preservation program.

The Chicago Film Archives is a great example of what a small-scale organization can accomplish through determination and ingenuity. Established in 2003 by Executive Director Nancy Watrous as a repository for the 5,000-item film collection that was being disposed of by the Chicago Public Library, the CFA has rapidly grown into an important regional archive holding more than 20,000 films, the earliest of which—A Pictorial Story of Hiawatha—dates back to 1903.

In 2005, the CFA was awarded its first grant from the NFPF to preserve Fairy Princess (1956), a short film by amateur moviemaker Margaret Conneely that was named one of the Photographic Society of America’s … Read more

Happy Independence Day!

U.S. Navy of 1915 (1915).

We’re celebrating the Fourth of July by marking the centenary of an indubitably American film, U.S. Navy of 1915. Its close-hand observations of sailors training and working aboard vintage ships have only grown more captivating and unique with age, making it the most popular film on the NFPF website by far. Nearly 250,000 viewers have streamed this fascinating glimpse of our military heritage.

This 11-minute fragment represents all that survives from what was a three reel documentary by showman Lyman Howe, whose Famous Ride on a Runaway Train (1921) appears on our DVD Lost and Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive. Few of his other films survive, and even U.S. Navy was considered lost until this portion of the film was discovered during the NFPF’s partnership with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia in 2008. If you haven’t already watched it, please … Read more

Film Preservation Workshop at the ALA Conference

Photo courtesy of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation.

The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) is co-sponsoring an all-day workshop on preserving and promoting audiovisual collections this Friday as part of the American Library Association (ALA) Conference in San Francisco. Topics will include film and video preservation, digitization, and how to share your 16mm film collections.

Many past recipients of NFPF support are among the presenters and it is sure to be an informative day for any institution with film in its collection. A number of NFPF staff members will be in attendance and would be happy to discuss our grant programs for those interested in taking the next step toward preserving their film holdings Please say hello if you are able to attend. 

Sponsored Films in Glorious Technicolor

The Story of Creative Capital (1957), courtesy the Hagley Museum & Library.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Technicolor Motion Picture Company, the developers of the color process that vividly brought the palette of the world to movie screens, the NFPF is pleased to present two short sponsored films made using the innovative technique.

The Story of Creative Capital (1957) is an animated lark from John Sutherland Productions made in cooperation with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and the Chamber of Commerce. A paean to the importance of business in American life, the film stresses the vital role of the individual investor to the capitalist system. With its jazzy color scheme and Les Baxter soundtrack, The Story of Creative Capital exemplifies the pop culture tendencies that drive many sponsored films.

Mrs. Mortimer Jones Prepares “Dinner for Eight” (1934) was the second … Read more

57 Films To Be Saved Through the NFPF’s 2015 Preservation Grants

Jessie Maple on the set of Twice as Nice (1989).

From an animated plea for peace by director Frank Tashlin to early color home movies of President Herbert Hoover and his family, the NFPF is excited to announce the most recent crop of films slated for preservation through its federally funded grant program. All together 57 films will be preserved by 32 institutions across 21 states.

Among the award winners is Jessie Maple’s 1989 independent feature Twice as Nice, which will be preserved by the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University. Maple took up filmmaking in the early 1970s, honing her craft at training schools and as an apprentice editor on two films by Gordon Parks. In 1975 she became the first African American woman member of the IATSE. With her husband LeRoy Patton, she founded LJ Film Productions where they produced socially engaged … Read more