Film Preservation

Since Thomas Edison’s invention of the kinetoscope in 1893, Americans have traveled the world using motion pictures to tell stories, document traditions, and capture current events. Their work stands as the collective memory of the first century witnessed by the moving image. By saving and sharing these motion pictures, we can illuminate our common heritage with a power and immediacy unique to film.

Preservationists are working against the clock. Made on perishable plastic, film decays within years if not properly stored.

Already the losses are high. The Library of Congress has documented that fewer than 20% of U.S. feature films from the 1920s survive in complete form in American archives; of the American features produced before 1950, only half still exist. For shorts, documentaries, and independently produced works, we have no way of knowing how much has been lost.

Fortunately the major studios now invest in the protection of their film libraries. With the development of television, home video, DVD, and cable, Hollywood sound films have become valuable assets and have many markets after their initial release.

Still at-risk are documentaries, silent-era films, avant-garde works, ethnic films, newsreels, home movies, and independent works. We call these orphan films because they fall outside the scope of commercial preservation programs. Orphan films often exist as one-of-a-kind copies in archives, libraries, museums, universities and historical societies. These organizations are the first line of defense for saving American films made outside of Hollywood.

Film preservation is expensive. In 2002 making a new master and viewing print of a black-and-white seven-reel silent feature cost about $32,000, assuming that no special restoration work was required. Making a preservation copy of a sound feature costs even more

Film deterioration can be combated through an integrated, three-pronged strategy. This involves:

printing old film onto new, more stable film stock,
storing film materials under cool-and-dry conditions, and
providing access through modern copies.

By integrating these processes, the public can study and enjoy access copies on film and video and archives can conserve the original source material and preservation master so that they will be available for years to come.