Preliminary Program Topics
SESSIONS
Born-Digital Camera-Original Video: Practices and Risks
Chair and Speakers
Taylor McBride, Smithsonian Institution
Crystal Sanchez, Smithsonian Institution
In the Spring of 2018, a survey was conducted of video production practices at the Smithsonian. The survey asked staff to describe their current production tools and practices and pressing archival needs. Survey results highlighted the need to develop a risk-assessment approach to analyze specific, common, born-digital, camera original video formats and make decisions on which formats to retain and support as an Institution. We believe that current file format sustainability factors and risk analysis/mitigation documentation in the field of video preservation falls short when it comes to born-digital formats, and this talk aims to begin bridging that gap. Our talk will open analysis of these formats to the field, encouraging others to participate in documentation of format specifics through shared and open documentation. Through this project, we hope to create a tool that allows us to be proactive in planning for archival and preservation actions for these files.
Building Common Grounds: A Collaborative Digital Humanities Project for Latin American Archives
Chair and Speakers
Juana Suarez, New York University
This presentation addresses a current collaborative digital humanities project targeting resources for Latin American archives, through concerted efforts of collaborations. It has much to say in suggesting ways to organize at a grassroots level; it is certainly a model that can be duplicated at different regions of the world that can benefit from decentralizing the control of the State. The presentation focuses on the collective system of governance, main resources, and portability of the project.
FIAF and Latin America: Towards a Global Film Preservation Movement
Chair and Speakers
Rielle Navitski, University of Georgia
Upon its creation in 1938, the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) announced its global ambitions in its choice of name. Yet only American and European institutions participated in its founding, and under a third of current member archives are based in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Seeking to deepen our historical understanding of moving-image archiving and the geopolitical factors that continue to shape it today, this presentation charts efforts to build an international film preservation movement in the post-WWII period. Focusing on Latin America, which witnessed the first widespread expansion of film archiving outside the US and Europe, the presentation draws on institutional documents recently made available by FIAF to outline the opportunities and challenges represented by Latin American film archives during FIAF’s early years and their implications for film preservation efforts eighty years after FIAF’s founding.
The American Masters Digital Archive: From Idea to Implementation
Chair and Speakers
Joe Skinner, WNET
Winter Shanck, WNET
In 2018, WNET successfully developed Phase II of the American Masters Digital Archive. This is the culmination of a 4-year effort towards digitizing, preserving and making accessible 1000+ hours of original interview footage from one of public media’s flagship National programs. Never-before-seen interviews from 32 years of American Masters will be made freely available, featuring artists like Ray Charles, Carol Burnett, Gloria Steinem and more. As the first of its kind at WNET, there were many challenges to surmount. Topics to be discussed: identifying ownership/viability of media assets, building institutional support, appealing to federal agencies and partners, navigating digitization workflow and vendor relationships, identifying your target audience, and building a research website that uses emerging technologies like synchronized transcription, mobile scaling, and more – under a tight budget! We will discuss efforts towards a Phase III, and give a sneak peak of the website prior to its full public launch.
Ten Years of Success: The Nitrate Committee’s Flickr Page
Chair and Speakers
Rachel Del Gaudio, Library of Congress
In 2008 the Nitrate Film Interest Group (now Nitrate Committee) created a Flickr page dedicated to identifying unknown films. Providing anonymity for archives and collectors alike, the page accepts images and videos of anything that needs to be identified. With a 40% success rate from the over 800 different unknown films that have been submitted, the page is proof that crowdsourcing works. This report will be given by Nitrate Committee co-chair Rachel Del Gaudio, who has run the Flickr page since the beginning. She will cover the history and successes of the Flickr page as well as the pitfalls it has experienced in its ten years. A great example of how an idea expressed in a committee meeting can lead to an actual continuing project, this report will be helpful for anyone in the field from students to heads of archives.
The “Other” Silent Film History : Silent Agricultural Films 1942-1978
Chair and Speakers
Tone Føreland, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
The burgeoning research on non-theatrical, useful, industrial, ephemeral and orphan films in the last decade seems to have given this part of film history a well-justified acknowledgement. In my presentation, I will use a Norwegian production of agricultural films that belongs to this “other” part of film history as a case study. In this film production, the death of silent film did not coincide with the coming of sound in the 1930s and I would like to share the considerations we had to do regarding the question of projection speed in digital preservation of these silent films. Normal speed or natural movement were not correct answers.
Home Movie Day International Advocacy / A “No Table” Discussion
Chair and Speakers
Devin Orgeron, North Carolina State University
Dwight Swanson, Center for Home Movies
Karianne Fiorini, Independent Archivist/Curator
Stefanie Zingl, Austrian Film Museum and the Ludwig Boltzmann, Institute for History and Society
Come join us for an open, “no table” discussion of Home Movie Day’s worldwide engagement and help us think of ways to bring HMD to new corners of the world. This panel is part celebration (we’ve grown considerably since 2003!) and part brainstorming session (we would like to see more countries experimenting with HMD events in 2018-2019). Our panelists will help guide the discussion, discuss their HMD successes (and failures), and show films as we collectively strategize. Whether you’re an HMD veteran or have only just heard about it, we want to hear your ideas!
Intersectionality In The Archive: Linking the Personal to the Professional
Chair and Speakers
Ariel Schudson, Archivist’s Alley
Erica Lopez, MIAP
Brendan Lucas, Outfest
Ina Archer, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
This inclusive discussion focuses on the need for greater intersectional structures in archiving and preservation. Featuring some of our finest archivists, we will examine a variety of topics from film exhibition and cataloging with an ever-shifting vocabulary to the trials and tribulations of being a student or non-conforming archivist in an environment that demands the “straight and narrow” (sometimes literally). This session is valuable on many levels. It is no secret that we need to change many of the structures that our profession was built on, as they are out of date and tired. Let us discuss the lived experiences of preservationists who work hard in a world that they love and see the multitude of ways in which involving these professionals can make all our institutions richer and our community stronger.
Rare Experience: Projecting Original and Unique Materials
Chair and Speakers
Genevieve Havemeyer-King, New York Public Library
John Klacsmann, Antholgoy Film Archives
Julian Antos, Music Box Films, Chicago Film Society
Brian Belak, Chicago Film Archives
Tanisha Jones, NYPL
When you’ve got original and unique materials that beg to be seen, but are not slated for preservation, what is one to do? This panel will discuss the ethical issues, technical practices, and policies surrounding the exhibition of camera originals, irreplaceable prints, and other unique materials. In this discussion, we hope to aid archivists and exhibitors in providing access to collections that run the gamut from amateur, documentary, and home-movie collections, to experimental, large-format, IB Technicolor prints, and works created on other discontinued film stocks.
It Takes a Village: Unlocking the Vault Through Collaboration
Chair and Speakers
Genevieve Havemeyer-King, New York Public Library
Carla Arton, Indiana University
Andy Uhrich, Indiana University
Crystal Rangel, New York Public Library, Special Formats Processing
Stacey Ference, New York Public Library, Special Formats Processing
Mass digitization has begun around the world as organizations acknowledge the instability of physical media, and it is not uncommon for stakeholders at different institutions to compare and contrast others’ workflows when planning their own. Indiana University has been carrying out an ambitious large-scale film digitization project over the past year, and The New York Public Library is preparing for a similar endeavor. Both have sought out commentary and advice from other organizations in order to address the needs of their own. One workflow does not fit all, and this session will explore the importance of knowledge sharing, transparency, and adaptability in what has become a global effort to preserve and make accessible historic film collections.
Selection and Safe Handling of Moving Image Related Objects for Exhibitions
Chair and Speakers
Randal Luckow, HBO
Anne Coco, AMPAS
Dawn Jaros, AMPAS
Archivists and librarians who manage the exhibition of moving image related collections must make decisions regarding the selection, safe handling, and display of these special items. This 60-minute session will advise attendees on how to manage exhibitions through their full lifecycles, from overall exhibition planning to how to present a specific piece for display. It will include presentations by curators, librarians, and archivists on how to select items for exhibition from the collection, how to work with borrowers, and how to make good shipping and handling decisions. This session brings together private, corporate, and public collection managers and conservators to show and discuss their workflows and the considerations that go into managing and exhibiting these collections. This session is presented in partnership with the Moving Image Related Materials Committee and the Film Librarians Group.
Selection, Conservation, and Care of Costumes in Moving Image Related Collections
Chair and Speakers
Randal Luckow, HBO
Sonja Wong Leaon, AMPAS
Sophie Hunter, AMPAS
Steve Wilson, Harry Ransom Center
Meghan Gruchow, Universal Studios Corporate Archives
Archivists and Librarians and Museum professionals working with collections of moving image related materials can struggle with difficult decisions regarding the selection, care, and long-term storage of these special items. This session will inform attendees on how to manage costumes through their full life-cycle: from how to make overall collection level decisions, to how to determine conservation treatment for a specific piece of wardrobe. This session will include presentations by registrars, curators, conservators, librarians, and archivists on how to select items to add to the collection, how to work with and find a conservator when things go wrong by understanding and identifying inherent vice in materials, and how to make good housing and storage decisions. This session is presented in partnership with the Moving Image Related Materials Committee and the Film Librarians Group.
Comrades in Archiving: Preserving the Unedited Reds Witness Interviews
Chair and Speakers
Jeffrey Osmer, Paramount Pictures
Nikki Jee, Paramount Pictures
Trisha Lendo, Paramount Pictures
Reds and Portland native John Reed take us on a theatrical journey back in time to the Russian Revolution. Interspersed through the theatrical release were interviews with the real people represented within the films narrative. These witnesses include a diverse group of writers, labor leaders, politicians, and classmates of the main character John Reed. The panel details the process of locating a quarter million feet of unedited film from the movie Reds, the creation of digital files for this footage, and the file cataloging process. Our task was to digitally preserve the assets and make uncut interviews easily available to all. The hybrid nature of this Academy Award winning film, intertwining documentary footage with a historical recreation, made this a rather unique archiving project. This is a panel for archives undertaking their own massive digitization process (and/or for fans of the Bolshevik revolution).
Case Study: Quality Control for Media Digitization
Chair and Speakers
Carla Arton, Indiana University
Mike Casey, Indiana University
Quality control is a critical part of media digitization projects that requires the same diligence and consideration as digitization and other preservation system functions to achieve accurate long-term preservation. Small mistakes can have large consequences for future access and research. This presentation will explore the types of QC used for audio, video and film by Indiana University’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative, which has digitally preserved over 300,000 AV items. It will detail the comprehensive, machine-based, automated QC system built in-house as well as approaches to human-intensive QC. Software (open-source and proprietary) that enables review of 37TB of content daily will be explored. Finally, the presentation will cast quality control as an exercise in risk management, examining areas where IU has chosen to reduce, avoid, transfer or accept risk. The basic principles and approach utilized are relevant to any institution undertaking media digitization, regardless of size.
Enhancing Exploration of Audiovisual Collections with Computer-based Annotation Techniques
Chair and Speakers
Johan Oomen, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Giovanna Fossati, EYE Filmmuseum
James Pustejovsky, Brandeis University
Christian Gosvig Olesen, University of Amsterdam
Automatic annotation techniques for metadata extraction enable fundamentally new uses, comprising (1) “Distant reading” approaches, meaning studying trends and latency across entire collections rather than one specific item (2) radically new exploratory interface and interaction designs (3) new ways of linking collections. As such methods enter our community and open new perspectives, this panel reflects on their opportunities for exploring archival content in novel ways. To do so, this session’s panelists present four cases from the US and the Netherlands that facilitate discussion about possibilities for audiovisual archives, focusing on how four different user groups may benefit; the general public, archivists, artists and scholars – while providing practical insights.
Putting the Pieces Together: Creating a National Education Television Catalog
Chair and Speakers
Rachel Curtis, Library of Congress
Sadie Roosa, WGBH
National Education Television (NET), the precursor to PBS, distributed public affairs, cultural, educational, and science programs nationally to educational television stations from 1954-1972. Aggregating this collection presented a series of challenges from reconciling various inventories and textual resources to exchanging information between institutions. Strategies included the use of PBCore as an intermediary for exchange of information as well as to provide useful context for each title, and exploring the feasibility of a linked data approach to express complex relationships. After discussing these strategies, panelists will highlight the benefits of the AAPB NET project for scholarly research and preservation planning.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater: Archiving with Oral Histories
Chair and Speakers
Brianna Toth, Bob Baker Marionette Theater/UCLA MLIS MAS
Adam Foster, Bob Baker Marionette Theater/UCLA MLIS MAS
Kate Papageorge-Schneiderman, UCLA MLIS MIAS/20th Century Fox Archives
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater is a high functioning volunteer run space with a rich history of supporting the underrepresented artistry of puppetry and the allied arts within the entertainment industry. As volunteers, we were tasked with creating an inventory of the theater’s vast and eclectic multimedia archive. However, with Bob Baker’s passing, much of the archive’s organizational structure has been lost. To understand the creative efforts of this community space we have had to rely on a collection of oral histories, television interviews, and experimental test footage. It was with these materials that we believe a historical context can be understood, and used to describe the paratextual records in the collection. For this reason, the project is a compelling model for how the preservation of moving image materials can give agency to community spaces. It also provides examples of ethical dilemmas archivists should recognize when reviewing such personal material.
Film Treasures from Lincoln Center Archives
Chair and Speakers
Bonnie Marie Sauer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
David Neary, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Becca Bender, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New surveys of the film holdings of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Archives have turned up some startling rediscoveries. In this panel, LCPA Archives shares reports on two of the most dramatic finds – the home movie collection of Kodachrome co-invetor Leopold Godowsky, Jr. (which includes a long lost film of Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa), and “Variations…”, a three-projector experimental documentary produced for Lincoln Center’s 20th anniversary in 1979, and projected onto five screens draped down the facade of the Metropolitan Opera.
Media On Display: Exhibition in Galleries and Museums
Chair and Speakers
John Klacsmann, Anthology Film Archives
Kristin MacDonough, Art Institute of Chicago
Peter Oleksik, Museum of Modern Art
Julian Antos, Chicago Film Society
Galleries and museums are important points of public access for moving image collections. However, museum and gallery settings pose unique challenges for exhibition of archival film, video, and digital media. The speakers on this panel will present case studies from their experiences preparing to present media in these settings from multiple perspectives — that of a presenting organization, a collections-holding organization, and a technician who has worked on museum installations. This will include some specific technical discussion of technology specific to these settings (film loopers, multiple simultaneous projections), challenges of extended playback and installations, and digital media film specification and preparation, as well as discussion of broader issues of medium specificity and thoughtful compromise.
Animating Canada’s Audio-Visual Heritage through Partnerships: CINEMAexpo67 and Archive|Counter-Archive
Chair and Speakers
Monika Gagnon, Concordia University
Paul Gordon, Library and Archives Canada, Senior Film Conservator
Stéphanie Côté, Cinématheque québécoise
Janine Marchessault, York University
This panel engages two large-scale media archival projects in Canada, one ongoing, the second one, brand new, to explore the critical need for collaborations between researchers, archivists and institutions (both national and community based). This panel brings into conversation two archivists from the Cinémathèque québécoise and Library and Archives Canada, with two university researchers (initiators of CINEMAexpo67 and Archive|Counter-Archive) to elucidate their vantage points and experiences with the Expo 67 films, as well as their unique collaborations which have effectively brought together technical expertise, research capacity and financial resources to enable further collaborations activating Canada’s moving image heritage. Following a presentation of re-animated films from CINEMAexpo67, the panel will discuss the recently funded Archive|Counter-Archive Partnership, uniting 40 artists, academics and archivists in Canada over 6 years to engage with similarly “difficult” audio-visual, film and video archives at 23 community and institutional archival sites across Canada, and discuss how it can draw on the challenges, experiences and networks formed through the earlier project.
Strategies and Outcomes for Public Digitization Events: A Case Study
Chair and Speakers
Andrew Weaver, Washington State University
John Vallier, University of Washington Libraries
Libby Hopfauf, Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound
Ari Lavigne, Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound
Dylan Flesch, KEXP
In July of 2018 a diverse group of institutions including KEXP, University of Washington Libraries, Washington State University Libraries, Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS) and Seattle Public Libraries will pool resources and expertise to hold a public audiovisual digitization fair. This fair will invite members of the Seattle area community to bring a wide range of personal audiovisual materials and have them inspected and digitized, with the option of granting permission for broadcast via KEXP and/or deposit into the University of Washington Archives. This presentation will use this event as a case study for holding public digitization days and for coordinating events of this nature across a large group of institutions with varying sizes, strengths and mandates. Concrete examples will be shown from every phase of the process (planning, execution and aftermath) with explanations of decisions made, the logic behind decisions and their success (or lack thereof).
Further Freaky Film Formats: Biocolor, Ikonograph & Horizontal VistaVision
Chair and Speakers
Snowden Becker, UCLA Dept. of Information Studies
Stefanie Zingl, Austrian Film Museum
Dino Everett, USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive
Marsha Gordon, North Carolina State University
Join us for another #FFFF panel, where we explore the forgotten (and misbegotten) formats of yesteryear! This time, things get wacky in three widths, with presentations on the 17.5mm Ikonograph home film viewing system, the “extremely lifelike” 9.5mm additive Biocolor process pioneered in early-1930s Vienna, and the ultra-wide, 8-perf horizontal VistaVision format developed for the premiere of White Christmas in 1954. All three formats will be projected LIVE during the session. Come and get your weird on!
Tackling Cataloguing Challenges of Non-Traditional Materials with the FIAF Manual
Chair and Speakers
Ashley Thomas, Simmons College
Meg Monroe, Simmons College
Kendra Long, Simmons College
The expansion of audiovisual archives to include non-traditional materials have presented descriptive and metadata challenges for archivists. The adoption of the FIAF Moving Image Cataloguing Manual can provide cataloguing versatility which can address some of these pressing issues. Using two examples of non-traditional materials – ephemera and pornographic media – this panel considers how the FIAF Manual can be an important tool to establish intellectual control and descriptive metadata to all assets held in our archives.
Everything in Your Archive is Now Fake
Chair and Speakers
John Tariot, Film Video Digital
Albert Gidari, Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School
“It’s been a little bit of a fluke, historically, that we’re able to rely on videos as evidence that something really happened.” – Ian Goodfellow, Staff Research Scientist at Google Brain. In early 2018 a simple new program, along with advances in AI and machine-learning, spawned a flurry of inexpensively-produced and eerily-realistic pornography of celebrities- all created by face-swapping their likenesses on to pornographic actors. Now, anyone with a pool of pictures of someone’s face and a minimal investment in computing power can create increasingly believable “deepfakes” of anyone. Deepfakes sow doubt and undermine the credibility of all moving images. New deepfakes will include revenge-video and fake news of politicians, government officials, law enforcement, and the military. This session explores deepfakes, how they’re made, what’s being done about them, as well as the ethical and legal issues, new opportunities, and the many questions now facing every archive.
Building, Moving, and Managing Audiovisual Preservation Facilities
Chair and Speakers
Dinah Handel, Stanford University
Siobhan Hagen, DCPL/MARMIA
Tre Berney, Cornell University
Michael Angeletti, Stanford University
In this session, panelists will share their experiences planning and preparing for an audio-visual facilities move, expanding digitization labs, coordinating and sharing space with people and equipment outside of audio-visual preservation, and building audio-visual labs in temporary or mobile spaces. Attendees can expect concrete advice from those that have built and moved a/v preservation labs of all shapes and sizes, including hard lessons learned along the way and what could have been done differently in hindsight. The intention for this panel is for all session participants to: feel empowered in managing their physical lab space; walk away with new insights into facilities-related issues; and encourage conversation and strategizing around audio-visual preservation infrastructure.
Collecting Born-Digital Material at the Source: Acquisition Strategies & Lessons Learned
Chair and Speakers
Erwin Verbruggen, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Anne Gant, EYE Filmmuseum
Laura Davis, Library of Congress
Chew Tee Pao, Asian Film Archive
For born-digital content, audiovisual and otherwise, the ideal moment to begin archiving is at the moment of its inception. The panelists will discuss their institutions’ strategies for creating relationships with producers and finding the carrots and sticks that help get the right material in the right format into the archive at the right time. The panelists will present challenges of and solutions for getting born-digital content from makers and how to treat born-digital materials once they arrive. They will share resources for people currently setting up a work-flow of their own. The panellists will present a mix of showcases ranging from cinema-oriented film productions to broadcast content and audiovisual works for online platforms.
War Stories from the Front Lines of Digital Cinema:
Why DSMs, DCDMs, DCPs, KDMs and DKDMs are Important to You
Chair and Speakers
Rebecca Hall, Chicago Film Society / AMIA Projection & Technical Presentation Committee
Andy Uhrich, Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Doug McLaren, Cornell Cinema
Wade Hanniball, Universal Pictures
Have interesting material that you want more people to see? Making it available for projection in a theatrical setting is an exciting option, but it can be tricky. Files that look fine in an archive’s editing suite will stutter and stretch, no longer resembling the material they beautifully transferred. What to do? This session will focus on sharing practical knowledge and best practices for preparing digital files for exhibition in a theatrical setting, including creating DCPs in-house and formatting other digital file formats correctly. Panelists will discuss challenges that arise from the wide variety of file formats and delivery options available, the difficulty archives may have testing the files and DCPs they create without access to a theater, and other inadvertent barriers to access. By shedding light on what exhibitors (end users) need from archives to present digital material theatrically, this panel hopes to encourage the exploration of theatrical settings as avenues for public exposure and access.
Permanencia Voluntaria: Mexico’s Underdog Archive of Popular Cinema
Chair and Speakers
Viviana Garcia Besne, Permanencia Voluntaria
Peter Conheim, Cinema Preservation Alliance
Sean Savage, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
On the fringes of Mexico’s rich cinematic history are the exploitation and monster movies best described as “popular cinema,” the most enduring of these are the films featuring the masked wrestler, El Santo. Despite their undeniable cultural impact such films are typically held in contempt by Mexico’s film establishment. Permanencia Voluntaria, in the small town of Tepoztlan, has set out to preserve and restore these neglected gems in unique partnerships with the Academy Film Archive, UCLA Film and Television Archive and director Nicolas Winding Refn. In the midst of these efforts, a massive earthquake struck the region in September 2017, sending the archive of original elements into complete disarray and exposing the collection to flooding. This presentation will detail the international disaster response, describe the restoration of the first two Santo films (both Cuba-Mexico co-productions released in 1961), and address the ongoing sustainability challenges of this regional archive.
World War 2 Propaganda in the Public Domain
Chair and Speakers
Julia Vytopil, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Lizzy Jongma, Network War Resources (Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen)
Tom de Smet, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
There are over 400 World War 2 collections in the Netherlands, many of them digitized. Online publication however lags behind, due to the complexity of copyright and privacy matters. To stimulate open access to World War 2 collections, the Network War Resources was founded in 2016. The Network pushes its 73 partners to publish metadata and content on their thematic online portal. When NWR asked the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision for WW2 collections to publish online, the National Socialist propaganda collection surfaced. Copyright research suggests a public domain status. Ethical questions arise, however. What about the privacy of people shown in these films as part of the national socialist movement? How ethical is it to “give away” propaganda films for free re-use? In our presentation we will discuss the role of a thematic network like Network War Resources and present the outcomes of the National Socialist propaganda case.
Sharing (The Workload) Is Caring (for The Work): Ethical and Effective Strategies for Preserving Magnetic Media Collections of Community-Engaged Archives
Chair and Speakers
Rachel L Mattson, University of Minnesota Libraries
Louisa Lebwohl, Syracuse University
Amy Sloper, University of Wisconsin
Morgan Morel, Bay Area Video Coalition
This panel explores the possibilities that collaborative, cross-institutional, post-custodial partnerships can offer community-engaged archives in their efforts to steward their audiovisual collections. Panelists will present a case study in which a small, community-run archives (The Archives of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club) partnered with a digitization vendor (Bay Area Video Coalition) and a university-based archives (The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research) to digitize, preserve, and expand access to a collection of unique, half-inch open reel videos documenting 1970s-era experimental theater and performance. Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the project uses a post-custodial model to support effective, affordable digital preservation, discoverability, and access.
Three Short Films from the Dennis Nyback Film Archive in 16mm
Chair and Speakers
Dennis Nyback, Oregon Cartoon Institute
Three films from Seattle (Hobo at the End of the Line, educational, 1977), Portland (The Case of the Kitchen Killer, underground, 1976) and San Francisco (The Innocent Fair, documentary, 1961 about the San Francisco Worlds Fair of 1915) from the Dennis Nyback Film Archive. All in 16mm.
Santo Contra El Cerebro del Mal (1959/1961)
Chair and Speakers
Viviana Garcia Besne, Permanencia Voluntaria Archivo Cinematografico
SANTO CONTRA EL CEREBRO DEL MAL (SANTO VS. THE EVIL BRAIN) is the second of two Mexico-Cuba co-productions released – but the first to be completed – after Castro came to power in Cuba, and the filmmakers were forced to flee the country prematurely (with the unprocessed 35mm negative being smuggled out inside a coffin). The aborted shooting schedule meant that sequences had to be “lifted” from each film to fill holes in the other, by necessity. Both of these two films, which represent the very first time that the famous El Santo character appeared on the big screen, have not been available in any acceptable quality prints since initial release. In 2017, the Permanencia Voluntaria archive’s Viviana Garcia Besné in Tepoztlán, Mexico, working in collaboration with Nicolas Winding Refn and the Academy Film Archive, set out to completely restore the films from their rapidly-deteriorating original camera negatives.
Community AV Archiving Fair
presented by Community Archiving Workshop
Join us for an all-day Community AV Archiving Fair! Independent media makers, collecting institutions, and community groups in the Portland area will be invited to bring their challenges, their media objects, and their data for a day of collaborative problem solving and skill-sharing with the AMIA community. The fair is organized around a number of “stations,” each of which will be staffed by AMIA volunteers, and focus on a particular workflow, technique, or tool. Stations will include: Film Inspection, Analog Inventory Techniques, Digitization, Prioritizing & Preparing Media for Digitization, Post-digitization File Management & Storage, Disaster Preparedness & Recovery, and Digital Preservation. AMIA conference attendees are invited to sign up to assist at a station or to propose their own stations or join stations to expand their own knowledge-base. Please sign up to volunteer by filling out this form [https://goo.gl/forms/9W72reeRIxQ0h5Cv1] or going to communityarchiving.org/avfair. This year, the AV Fair will be held in the AMIA Pavilion on Saturday and open to everyone in the Portland AV community. Come for an hour or stay for the whole day! Your $10 fee will help us make sure we have enough materials on hand for everyone who attends.
WORKSHOPS
Registration for Workshops will open by August 1st
Cataloging & Mapping Moving Images with PBCore, BIBFRAME, and RDA
Chair and Speakers
Randal Luckow, HBO
Rebecca Fraimow, WGBH
Andrea Leigh, Library of Congress
Murray Browne, Turner Broadcasting
Meghan Fitzgerald, NASA
Rebecca Fraimow, WGBH Boston
This highly-interactive workshop will provide participants with real-world strategies to evaluate and implement data models, descriptive standards, controlled vocabularies, and shared data authorities, through practical hands-on exercises. Dynamic presentations will illustrate the role and purpose of putting in place a strong data model for bibliographic description, using BIBFRAME and FRBR examples, and the value of implementing standards such as LCSH, LCGFT, and AAT as data authorities. Participants will put these cataloging and metadata concepts directly into practice utilizing tools emerging from the NEH-funded PBCore Development and Training Project. A special hands-on session will apply genre/form headings to moving images, and show how they are used symbiotically with Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe both what a work is and what it is about. This workshop is intended for those with a moderate level of understanding of metadata standards and implementation strategies.
Copyright 101 for Moving Image Archivists
Chair and Speakers
Casey Davis Kaufman, WGBH
Jessica Fjeld, Berkman Klein Center Cyberlaw Clinic, Harvard Law School
The physical and technological barriers between archives and users are rapidly diminishing, marking a transformative shift in archival practice. As analog collections are digitized, objects from audiovisual archives can be shared, remixed, incorporated into new productions, embedded, referenced and so on. While archivists confront the legalities that govern how digital collections can be made available, pre-existing questions regarding how, when and to what extent analog collections can be made available still remain. To maximize archival access to audiovisual collections, archivists need to understand copyright issues, risks and exemptions, and the means of navigating those issues within their institutions. Copyright scholar Jessica Fjeld will provide a thorough guide to providing broad collection access within the limits of copyright in a workshop titled “Copyright 101 for Moving Image Archivists.” . Attendees will gain a greater knowledge of copyright and increased confidence in working with senior administrators to address institutional risk.
Small Gauge Projector Maintenance and Repair
Chair and Speakers
Taylor McBride, Smithsonian Institution
Dino Everett, USC SCA Hugh M Hefner Moving Image Archive
Kristin Lipska, San Francisco Symphony
Genevieve Havemeyer-King, New York Public Library
Emily Mercer, AMIA Projection & Technical Presentation Committee
Archivist’s Guide to QuickTime
Chair and Speakers
Dave Rice, CUNY
Annie Schweikert, NYU MIAP
QuickTime can refer to a video encoding, a proprietary Apple file format, a profile of an ISO file format, or a video player. You can actually use QuickTime to put QuickTime into your QuickTime. This workshop provides a technical tour of all things QuickTime with an emphasis on QuickTime, the audiovisual container. This workshop will review the architecture of QuickTime and demonstrate many features relevant to archival work, such as how significant characteristics such as interlacement, edit lists, color data, user metadata, timecode, and aspect ratio are stored (or not) within the format. We’ll cover QuickTime policies such as TN2162 that add additional requirements for the usage of uncompressed video with QuickTime. Join us to review how to inspect, validate, respond to, and manipulation QuickTime files.
Technology Selection and Implementation for Humans
Chair and Speakers
Kara Van Malssen, AVP
Erwin Verbruggen, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Technologies such as DAM, MAM, CMS, or digital preservation systems have the potential to completely transform how our assets are managed, preserved, and made available. But choosing the right solution can be overwhelming, and even more daunting is planning for successful implementation. Where do we start? And how do we ensure that the project doesn’t fail (a whooping 25% of all technology projects do), or not fulfill the promise we envision (which another 25% likely will)? This workshop will walk participants through the process of technology selection and implementation, using a clear, step-by-step methodology, and leveraging a human-centered design approach. Participants will learn how to work with stakeholders to identify needs, goals, and requirements. They will also learn how to craft a comprehensive RFP/RFI, evaluate proposals, and plan for implementation and ongoing management. The workshop will be interactive, fast-paced, and fun!
Licensing 101 for Moving Image Archivists
Chair and Speakers
Casey Davis Kaufman, WGBH
Jenni Matz, Television Academy
This workshop will cover the basics of licensing an archival collection to third parties. We will cover common questions and issues, how to draft a policy, how to set up rates, privacy rights and other issues to consider, and how to draft clip license agreements. We will also look at sample rates and some considerations when deciding on a pricing plan. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a strong understanding of the policies, workflows and considerations for: -licensing for new films/productions -licensing for research/educational purposes -developing standard license templates -setting pricing tiers -delivering content
HACK DAY
Please join AMIA/DLF Hack Day, now in its 5th year! A unique opportunity for practitioners and managers of moving image collections to join with developers and engineers for an intense day of collaboration to develop solutions for digital audiovisual preservation and access. Within digital preservation and curation communities, hack days provide an opportunity for archivists, collection managers, technologists, and others to work together to develop software solutions, documentation or training materials, and more for digital collections management needs. No prior experience in coding or computer programming is needed, just a willingness to learn, share knowledge and collaborate.