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Harvard Film Archive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harvard Film Archive
The Carpenter Center, home of the Harvard Film Archive
Map
EstablishedMarch 16, 1979; 47 years ago (1979-03-16)
LocationCarpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates42°22′25.15″N 71°06′53.06″W / 42.3736528°N 71.1147389°W / 42.3736528; -71.1147389
TypeFilm archive
Collections
Over 25,000 films
Founders
DirectorHaden Guest
Websiteharvardfilmarchive.org

The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dedicated to the collection, preservation, and exhibition of film, the HFA houses over 25,000 films, along with videos, photos, posters, and other film ephemera from around the world and almost every period in film history. The HFA cinematheque screens films weekly in its 188-seat theater. It also maintains a film conservation center near Central Square, Cambridge. Harvard Film Archive won the 2020 Webby Award for Cultural Institution in the category Web.[1]

History

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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 raised concerns 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 concerns that the archives' absorption in the Library would affect its public film screenings.[4]

Collection

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The collection spans the history of film-making from the silent film era to today, and includes Hollywood films, documentaries, animation, short films, B-movies and feature films from all over the world. 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 rarities, including some of the only prints in the United States of several films by Serbian director 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

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The Archive's mission includes conserving, restoring, and exhibiting 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

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  1. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob (May 20, 2020). "Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards". The Verge. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  2. ↑ Decherney, Peter (2005). Hollywood and the culture elite : how the movies became American. New York. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-231-50851-3. 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 November 14, 2006.
  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 November 14, 2006.
  6. ↑ Meek, Tom (April 16, 2016). "Local Animator Karen Aqua Remembered In Retrospective At Harvard Film Archive". WBUR. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  7. ↑ Austerlitz, Saul (December 19, 2007). "Preserving history, frame by frame". Boston.com. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
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