Harvard Film Archive

Coordinates: 42°22′25.15″N 71°06′53.06″W / 42.3736528°N 71.1147389°W / 42.3736528; -71.1147389
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Carpenter Center, home of the Harvard Film Archive

The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a

2020 Webby Award for Cultural Institution in the category Web.[1]

History

The archive was founded in 1979 by Robert Gardner, Vlada K. Petric and Stanley Cavell in Harvard's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, with grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It opened on March 16, 1979, with a screening of Ernst Lubitsch’s silent film, Lady Windermere's Fan.

Film programmer Amos Vogel's extensive Cinema 16 film collection, originally sold to Barney Rosset and Grove Press circa 1966–1967, served as the founding collection for the Harvard Film Archive.[2]

The archive's first curator was Vlada K. Petric, who expanded the collection and established the year-round regular screenings. He retired in 1995 and in 1999 Bruce Jenkins assumed the post.

In January 2005, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean William C. Kirby announced that the archive would be absorbed by the Harvard College Library and managed by the Library of Fine Arts. This caused some concern within the Harvard community about the future of the archive and its programming. Jenkins resigned soon after the announcement.[3]

In September 2006 film scholar Haden Guest became the new director of the archive. He addressed worries that the archives' absorption in the Library would affect its public film screenings.[4]

Collection

The collection spans the history of film-making from the

. It is the largest collection of 35mm film in New England. The collection grows by an average of 15 to 20 films a year and contains some rarities, such as some of the only prints in the United States of several films by
Dusan Makavejev
. It also features a large collection of
German cinema and the Bavarian Film Fund donates prints of any films that it finances.[5] After the death of Karen Aqua, the archive was given more than 300 of her works, both completed and unfinished.[6]

Film conservation

The Archive's mission includes to conserve, restore, and exhibit the collection's prints. It prioritizes film-to-film preservation for archival stability, authenticity, and aesthetics.[7] It may also perform film-to-digital transfers.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (20 May 2020). "Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards". The Verge. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  2. OCLC 213305995.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  3. ^ "The Harvard Film Archive". Harvard Magazine. November–December 2005. pp. 37–38. Archived from the original on 2006-11-14.
  4. ^ Brokaw, Leslie (November 12, 2006). "New director Guest plans larger role for Harvard Film Archive". The Boston Globe.
  5. ^ "Film Archive Goes Silver". Harvard Magazine. January–February 2004. pp. 57–58. Archived from the original on 2006-11-14.
  6. ^ Meek, Tom (2016-04-16). "Local Animator Karen Aqua Remembered In Retrospective At Harvard Film Archive". WBUR. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  7. ^ Austerlitz, Saul (2007-12-19). "Preserving history, frame by frame". Boston.com. Retrieved 2019-05-10.

External links

42°22′25.15″N 71°06′53.06″W / 42.3736528°N 71.1147389°W / 42.3736528; -71.1147389