Unstable Platforms? Film/Moving Image Studies Papers from MIT7 Media in Transition

Teaser image, courtesy of Warner Brothers, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 out on July 15  (David Yates, 2011). Read Debora Lui's paper on Harry Potter: The Exhibition.

Today, Film Studies For Free brings you links to film and moving image related papers from the conference proceedings of the seventh annual Media in Transition conference, which will take place next week, May 13-15, 2011, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Here's the conference's mission statement:

Has the digital age confirmed and exponentially increased the cultural instability and creative destruction that are often said to define advanced capitalism? Does living in a digital age mean we may live and die in what the novelist Thomas Pynchon has called “a ceaseless spectacle of transition”? The nearly limitless range of design options and communication choices available now and in the future is both exhilarating and challenging, inciting innovation and creativity but also false starts, incompatible systems, planned obsolescence. How are we coping with the instability of platforms? 

FSFF particularly liked "“Make Any Room Your TV Room:” Media Mobility, Digital Delivery, and Family Harmony" by film and media studies scholar and blogger extraordinaire Chuck Tryon, film and television scholar and media studies blogger extraordinaire Michael Z. Newman's paper 'The Television Image and the Image of the Television", and "Who Told You You Were Special Edition? The Commercialization of the Aura" by Justin Mack.

There are other great papers online connected to the conference theme of unstable platforms and the experience of mediatic transitions that don't treat moving image topics and you can access those here.

• Teaching Smart Cinema: DVD Add-ons and New Audience Pleasures, Pat Brereton

• The Digitization of Memory at the National Film Board of Canada,
  Morgan Charles

• Promise and Problems: Independent Production in Periods of Change, Aymar Jean Christian

• How New Media Change Our Experience of Stories, Teun Dubbelman

• Making Selves/Making Citizens in the Age of YouTube, Megan Fulwiler and Kim Middleton

• Virtual Bliss, Analog Horrors: Reading the Imperfect Digital Image in Film and the Video Game, Robert Furze

• Hoarding the Ethereal: How We Have more Things but with Less Clutter, Gayle Gatchalian

• Lessons from the Front: Rio’s War against Drug Trafficking, Participatory Culture and New Media Paradigms for Brazilian Soap Operas, Leandro Gejfinbein, Rejane Spitz

• Stories with Choices: Artist´s Multimedia Narratives, Raivo Kelomees

• Piracy, Circulation, and Cultural Control in Cyber-Age China, Jinying Li

• From the Theater to the Gallery: Harry Potter Engagements within the Museum, Debora Lui

• Who Told You You Were Special Edition? The Commercialization of the Aura
  Justin Mack

• New Platforms: More Choice – Less Freedom?: Mediated Narratives of Human History, Klaus Peter Muller

• Conserving Digital Art for the Ages, Francis Marchese

• The Television Image and the Image of the Television, Michael Newman

• A Story about Random Memories and Fragmented History on Screens, Katharina Niemeyer

• Remembering the Past in the Dynarchive: The State of Knowledge in Digital Archives, Julia Noordegraaf

• Preserving Digital Narratives in an Age of Present-Mindedness: the View from Toronto, Kamilla Pietrzyk

• Indiana Jones Fights the Communist Police: Text Adventures as a Transitional Media Form in the 1980’s Czechoslovakia, Jaroslav Svelch

• "Make Any Room Your TV Room:” Media Mobility, Digital Delivery, and Family Harmony, Chuck Tryon 

Scope on Moving Image Archives

Image from Picturegoer Magazine, archived at the Bill Douglas collection, University of Exeter, as discussed by Lisa Stead in
her article Audiences from the Film Archive: Women's Writing and Silent Cinema.
(Used in accordance with the Original License)

Across the [Using Moving Image Archives] collection, then, scholars ask: how is the archive, as a repository of memory and of the past, used to construct cultural history? What can archives tell us about the formation of particular categories of identity? How can the ephemeral, like the digital, be archived? These are pressing, important questions, and we hope the varied answers here will lead to further reflection and debate upon the place of archival research in the interdisciplinary study of moving images.  From 'Introduction', by Nandana Bose and Lee Grieveson

Film Studies For Free is still catching up with the busy, Summer, electronic educational traffic. Below are links to all the brilliant items in one of the most significant volumes to be published online in its recent absence on holiday: Scope's latest issue on Using Moving Image Archives, edited by Nandana Bose and Lee Grieveson.

FULL ISSUE AS e-BOOK

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgements and Introduction by Nandana Bose and Lee Grieveson

Part I: The Archive and the Nation

• Amateur Film and the Interwar English Countryside by Michael McCluskey

• Critical Reflections on Film as a Historical Source: A Case Study of the Military Regime in Brazil by Nina Schneider

Part II: The Ephemerality and Textuality of the Archive

• Audiences from the Film Archive: Women's Writing and Silent Cinema by Lisa Stead

• Archival Realities and Contagious Spaces: Shopgirls, Censorship and the City in Damaged Goods by Heida Johannsdottir

Part III: The Televisual and Digital Archive

• Reading Political Comedy: Yes Minister and Comic Coherence by Matt Crowder

• The Representation by French Television of Building Construction Work in and around Paris During the 1960s by Jacob Paskins

• Archives and Prefigurative Practices: Digital Games Walkthrough Archives as Record and Resource by Daniel Ashton

To Decasia and Back: Film Preservation Studies

Short documentary by Louise Lambert (2005) about Bill Morrison's experimental collage film Decasia (2002). You can also read David Cairn's great entry on this film for the Film Preservation Blogathon here. Further articles on this film are listed below.

Film Studies For Free is very honoured to contribute an entry to the "For the Love of Film! Film Preservation Blogathon". As FSFF readers will already know, this highly worthwhile event has been organised by greatly esteemed bloggers Self-Styled Siren and Marilyn Ferdinand (the latter of the wonderful Ferdy on Film). 

Below are embedded some entertaining and informative online videos about film preservation, and below those are some links to further, openly accessible, scholarly material about this essential but expensive art and science.

If you would like to make a donation to the Blogathon's chosen charitable recipient, the National Film Preservation Foundation (U.S.A), one of the most active and important preservers of film anywhere in the world,  please click here.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is the independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. They work directly with archives to rescue endangered films that will not survive without public support. The NFPF will give away 4 DVD sets as thank-you gifts to blogathon donors chosen in a random drawing: Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 and Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film, 1947-1986.

So you can see for yourselves the important work that the NFPF does, here's the list of films it has helped to preserve so far.

If you would like to contribute to the cause of film preservation in a country other than the U.S. you can find details of all national affiliates to the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) via FIAF's online directory here.

To access a list of all entries to the "For the Love of Film" Blogathon to date please click here. If you need further inspiration to donate or otherwise get involved in this cause, do watch Greg Ferrara's wonderful video commercial for the Blogathon at his website Cinema Styles.

A great introduction to the practicalities of film preservation (with a terrifically entertaining voiceover). It looks at the preservation of Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's 1942 film Listen to Britain at the British Film Institute archive.

 
Treasures of the Academy/"Guardians of History" Documentary Channel/Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produce an in-depth look at the importance of film preservation. John Huston's World War 2 documentaries, "Battle of San Pietro" and "Let There Be Light," which have been preserved by DOC and AMPAS, are highlighted as examples of film as living history. Featuring interviews with John Huston's son, Tony, and top directors and historians who shed considerable light on this important, exciting subject. Parts 2 & 3 below.
 
Part 2

Part 3

 
Francis Ford Coppola on Film Preservation and Technology



A sad reminder of the extreme end of celluloid's ephemerality through neglect: "Spectacular footage of 1937 Fox Film storage facility fire in Little Ferry, NJ - Digital/upload by F. Fuchs Filmed by W. Zabransky. Theda Bara and other FOX films/negatives were destroyed."

• International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) The "Journal of Film Preservation" is the Federation's main periodical publication in paper format. It offers a forum for both general and specialised discussion on all theoretical and technical aspects of moving image archival activities. Published twice a year by FIAF Brussels, each issue in paper format will be published one year later on the website. Here's the complete table of contents for the Journal between 1995 and 2008 (in other words, an index to hundreds of online and Open Access articles on this topic!) 
• Matthew Bernstein, 'Exhibition, The Film Reader (review) by Ina Rae Hark', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Eileen Bowser and Ronald S. Magliozzi, Ronald S., 'Film Archiving as a Profession: An Interview with Eileen Bowser', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Caroline Frick, an expert of film conservation, is founder and executive director of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In this [ten minute long video] interview, hosted by Luis Figueroa, she emphasizes the importance of film preservation and mentions how the growth of the film media has had a positive influence in the development of this art of conservation. 
• André Gaudreault, Jean-Marc Lamotte, Tim Barnard tr., 'Fragmentation and Segmentation in the Lumière "Animated Views"', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Karen F. Gracy, 'Documenting the process of film preservation', The Moving Image, 3.1 (2003) x, 1-41
• André Habib, 'Thinking in the Ruins: Around the Films of Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004  
• André Habib, 'Cinema from the Ruins of the Archives: Matter and Memory: A Conversation with Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Jan-Christopher Horak, 'Film history and film preservation: reconstructing the text of The joyless street (1925)', Screening the Past, November 1998
• Jan-Christopher Horak, 'Cinema 16: Documents toward a History of the Film Society (review) by Scott MacDonald and Amos Vogel', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Mary Ide and Leah Weisse, 'Developing Preservation Appraisal Criteria for a Public Broadcasting Station', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Priya Jaikumar, 'More Than Morality: The Indian Cinematograph Committee Interviews (1927)', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Claudy op den Kemp, 'Decasia: Plus belle que la beauté est la ruine de la beauté', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Jennie Saxena with contributions from Ken Weissman and James Cozart, 'Preserving African-American Cinema:The Case of The Emperor Jones (1933)', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Christel Schmidt, 'Preserving Pickford: The Mary Pickford Collection and the Library of Congress', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Donato Totaro, 'Review of This Film is Dangerous: A Celebration of Nitrate Film ed. Roger Smither, Associate editor Catherine A Surowiec. FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film), London: United Kingdom, 2002', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Donato Totaro, 'The Old Made New: the Cinematic Poetry of Bill Morrison', Offscreen Journal, November 30, 2004
• Donato Totaro, 'AMIA: The Moving Image Journal: The Association of Moving Image Archivists', Offscreen Journal, April 30, 2003
• Alison Trope, 'Review of Paolo Cherchi Usai's Death of cinema: history, cultural memory, and the digital dark age', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-58
• Patricia Rodden Zimmermann, 'Moviegoing in America (review) by Gregory A. Waller', The Moving Image 3.1 (2003) 42-5
  

For the Love of Film

Some of Film Studies For Free's favourite bloggers, the Self-Styled Siren of the eponymous blog and Marilyn Ferdinand of the wonderful Ferdy on Film (along with Greg Ferrara of the ever so stylish Cinema Styles) have been involved in launching and whipping up deserved support for a Film Preservation Blogathon' aptly titled 'For the Love of Film'.

It will begin next Sunday, on Valentine's Day appropriately. And the idea is for as many people as possible to join in, either with relevant posts on their blogs and/or by reading said posts and contributing financially to the cause of film preservation.

Here's what the Siren has to say:

The fine folks at the National Film Preservation Foundation have really gotten into the spirit, lending us photos and clips from films that their efforts have saved. Do have a look. And they have also arranged for a DVD giveaway, to be distributed after the blogathon via a drawing from those who have contributed to the fund.
     Because of course, the important part is to contribute to the NFPF. Film preservation is an extremely expensive process, and our goal this Valentine's Week is to help along their good work with as much money as we can give. The link to their donation page is right here.
     If everyone who visits these blogs the week of February 14th kicks something, anything, into the kitty, we could be responsible for saving even more films. And wouldn't that be much, much better than the usual run of sad bonbons and wilted bouquets this time of year?

Now FSFF appreciates sad bonbons and wilted bouquets as much as the next sappy blog, but this is a worthy cause indeed! Do visit the Siren's website to see which topics have been proposed so far (including one by the very blog you are currently reading...). Those of you on Facebook can check out the Blogathon's activities there, too.

Archives and Auteurs: conference papers online

Lindsay Anderson meeting the "Queen' ( on the set of Britannia Hospital, 1982)

As part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research project on 'The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson' (see detailed project outline), a conference on Archives and Auteurs was held at the University of Stirling from 2nd - 4th September 2009. The conference brought archivists, academics, curators and researchers together to discuss the ways in which the study of the archives of filmmakers and the film industry can provide new perspectives and insights into the history of cinema.

Film Studies For Free was delighted to see that the excellent papers from the conference are now freely accessible online at the Stirling University website.

Direct links to open pdf files are given below. In addition, check out Kathryn Mackenzie's wonderful blog -- Archives and Auteurs -- devoted to this project. A selection of Anderson's photograph albums from 1940s and 1950s have been made available on the University of Stirling Archives flickr pages. These albums provide a rich visual record of Anderson's early years as a filmmaker, documenting the early industrial films he made in Wakefield, his trips to the Cannes Film Festival and his contribution to Free Cinema. Those interested should also read this related article by Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, 'Creating Authorship? Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin’s collaboration on If.... (1968)', Journal of Screenwriting, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010. And finally, Moving Image Source published a great article on Anderson (August 14, 2008) by Steve Erickson, entitled 'Anarchy in the U.K': 

• Charles Barr, 'About the John Ford Archive'

• Steve Chibnall, 'A Family Film Business: Researching the Adelphi Archive'

• Eirik Frisvold Hanssen, 'The Fairy-Tale Theatre: Reception and Authorship at the Margins of the Ingmar Bergman Archive'

• Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, 'Some Kind of Dialectic: Lindsay Anderson's Artistic Process'  Pt.1

• Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, 'Some Kind of Dialectic: Lindsay Anderson's Artistic Process' Pt.2

• Aaron Hunter, 'Down to the Last Detail: Archival Reconstruction of Hal Ashby's Place in Hollywood Cinema'

• John Izod, 'A bumpy ride on The White Bus'

• Kathryn Mackenzie, 'Britannia Hospital: searching the archives for an audience'   

• Karl Magee, 'O Lucky Man? Investigating the Lindsay Anderson Archive'  

• Brian Neve, 'Archives, process and discourse: Elia Kazan, Baby Doll and 'independent' American filmmaking, 1955-63'

• Andrew Spicer, 'The Creative Producer: The Michael Klinger Papers'

• Sarah  Street, '"Designing for Moving Pictures": Production Designers and/in the Archives'

• Karyn Stuckey, 'Lolita: a journey with Nabokov and Kubrick from the page to the screen'

• Marc Vernet, 'The Ince 'Method' and Film on the West Coast between 1913 and 1917'