Harvard Film Archive
The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive devoted to cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It maintains a collection of over 25.000 films and related documents, and regularly screens films in its 210 seat theater. It also maintains a film conservation center near Central Square, Cambridge.
History
The archive was founded in 1979 by Robert Gardner and his colleagues 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.
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.[1]
In September 2006 film scholar Haden Guest became the new director of the archive. He has calmed fears that the archives' absorption in the Library would affect its public film screenings.[2]
The collection
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 some rarities, such as 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.[3]
Film conservation
It is part of the archive's mission to screen films, however, since film is perishable, regular showings take their toll on the film stock itself. Therefore, conserving and preserving the collection's prints has also become an important focus. Some films are transferred to new prints or more durable media such as DVDs at the archive's conservation center.
References
- ^ "The Harvard Film Archive". Harvard Magazine. November–December 2005, pp. 37-38.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Brokaw, Leslie (November 12, 2006). "New director Guest plans larger role for Harvard Film Archive". The Boston Globe.
- ^ "Film Archive Goes Silver". Harvard Magazine. January–February 2004, pp. 57-58.
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