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Report to the U.S.Congress for the Year Ending December 31,2006 Created by the U.S. Congress to Preserve America’s Film Heritage Created by the U.S. Congress to Preserve America’s Film Heritage April 6, 2007 Dr. James H. Billington The Librarian of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540-1000 Dear Dr. Billington: In accordance with Public Law 109-9 (Title IIIB), The National Film Preservation Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2005, I submit to the U.S. Congress the 2006 Report of the National Film Preservation Foundation. As you know, the 2005 legislation increased the annual federal funding for our national preservation programs to $530,000. These resources have made a significant difference. This past year, we were able not only to assist more institutions but also to support larger, more complex projects, such as the restoration of the silent-era classic Huckleberry Finn and newly discovered small-town portraits by itinerant filmmaker H. Lee Waters. All told, the NFPF has now helped 150 archives, libraries, and museums across 38 states to save historically and culturally significant films that might otherwise have been lost to the public. The Library of Congress took extraordinary steps to secure full funding for our first year under the reauthorization, and we are deeply grateful for your leadership. This past year also marked a watershed for cooperative access projects. We published The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, the first introduction to the motion pictures commissioned by businesses, charities, and advocacy groups over the past century, and began work on two more DVD sets of long-unavailable films. Bringing together contributions by scholars, archivists, and technical experts, projects like these produce publications that are used extensively in education and make it possible to share with the public the results of decades of preservation work. Space does not permit acknowledging all who advanced our efforts in 2006, but I would like to mention several organizations that played an especially important role: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Cecil B. De Mille Foundation, Creative Artists Agency, The Film Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NFPF has become an instrument through which public and private supporters join forces to save our nation’s film heritage. I look forward to our continued work together. Sincerely, Roger L. Mayer Chairman, Board of Directors National Film Preservation Foundation REPORT TO THE U.S. CONGRESS FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2006 Contents 2 A Decade of Preservation 3 Grants 5 What Are Sponsored Films? 6 Coming Soon:New Treasures DVDs 8 Appendixes One:Films Preserved Through the NFPF Two:Financial Statements Three:Contributors Cover image: Who We Are The Soul of Youth (1920), pre- served by the Library of Congress. The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is Directed by William Desmond the independent, nonprofit organization created by the Taylor, this long-unseen feature U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. Working follows the travails of a resource- with archives and others who appreciate film, the NFPF ful orphan who is reclaimed for society by Judge Ben Lindsay, the supports activities that save films for future generations, real-life Denver reformer who improve film access for education and exhibition, and helped invent the juvenile justice increase public commitment to preserving film as a cultural system. The Soul of Youth is among the 48 rare works show- resource, art form, and historical record. Established in cased in Treasures III: Social Issues 1996, the NFPF is the charitable affiliate of the National in American Film, 1900–1934, Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. the NFPF’s forthcoming four-DVD box set with book. THE NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION A Decade of Preservation Motion pictures have documented America for more than a century. From Alaska to Florida, they have recorded communities, told stories, illustrated travels, promoted business, and chronicled the news of the day. Movies capture, with the immediacy unique to film, how Americans have lived, worked, and dreamed. By saving these films, we save a living piece of America’s memory. The National Film Preservation Foun- dation was created by Congress in 1996 “to George Washington Bridge from Manny Kirchheimer’s Bridge High (1970), saved by the New York Public promote and ensure the preservation and Library’s Donnell Media Center. NFPF support in 1999 public accessibility of the nation’s film heritage drew attention to the center’s rare independent films held at the Library of Congress and other and led to a $530,000 Carnegie Corporation preserva- tion grant and city funding to build a cold storage vault. public and nonprofit archives throughout The Chechahcos (1924), the first feature shot the United States.” Congress set aside federal entirely in Alaska and the first film preserved by matching funds to support preservation pro- the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Funding from the NFPF in 1999 helped save this work and grams and serve as an incentive for private silent-era films, socially significant home launch the university’s film preservation program. donations. In founding the NFPF, Congress movies, avant-garde works, newsreels, indus- Now more than 400 moving image selections broke down the barriers that had discouraged trials, and independent films that fell outside can be viewed through the UAF Web site. regional collections from preserving films and the scope of commercial preservation pro- saving our diverse moving image history. It is grams. These “orphan films” often survived as worth recalling the reasons for this legislation one-of-a-kind copies in regional collections and the difference it has made. lacking the resources to preserve them. At the In 1992, the Librarian of Congress request of Congress, the Librarian studied alerted Congress that motion pictures were ways to attack the problem, holding hearings disintegrating faster than archives could save through the National Film Preservation Board them. The works most at risk were not and evaluating public comment. From this Hollywood sound features but documentaries, process grew the blueprint for a new public- private partnership, the National Film Preservation Foundation. Thanks to the farsighted 1996 legisla- NFPF Program Growth 160 tion, film preservation has taken root and 140 flowered. Over the past decade, the NFPF 120 has advanced film preservation in 38 states, 100 the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Many public and private institutions, once 80 150 130 considered too small to undertake film preser- 60 112 98 vation projects, are now saving irreplaceable 40 83 Organizations Served 63 47 films and sharing them with the public 20 31 12 through screenings, exhibits, DVDs, broad- 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 20022003 2004 2005 2006 casts, and the Internet. This report highlights Over the past decade, the NFPF has provided film preservation grants to 150 archives, our activities in 2006 and shows what can be libraries, and museums. Twenty new institutions joined our programs in 2006. accomplished by working together. 2 2006 REPORT Organizations Receiving Grants in 2006 Grants Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Anthology Film Archives Appalshop The National Film Preservation Foundation 1920s; Austin: The Friendly City (1943), a Atlanta History Center Reauthorization Act of 2005 has brought a travelogue for Texans unable to visit their cap- sea change in film preservation for archives, ital during the war; home movies of country Austin History Center libraries, and museums across the country. stars Hank Williams, Porter Wagoner, and Backstreet Cultural Museum The legislation set aside $530,000 each year Bob Wills; a news profile of Jackie Robinson Bessemer Historical Society through 2009 to save and make available shot before he joined the Dodgers; Home for Bridgeport Public Library American films not preserved by commercial Life (1966), about an assisted-living facility; Center for Visual Music interests. The new resources, secured through an anti–Vietnam War film from Hawaii; Chicago Film Archives the leadership of the Library of Congress, dou- scenes of Smokey the Bear shot shortly after Chicago Filmmakers bled the size of the NFPF grant programs and his rescue by forest rangers in New Mexico; Country Music Hall of Fame funded the preservation of 185 films in 2006. and independent works by Adam Beckett, and Museum The motion pictures saved through Anne Belle, Holly Fisher, Marjorie Keller, Duke University our 2006 grants represent an astonishing Danny Lyon, Jonas Mekas, and Judd Yalkut. Electronic Arts Intermix sampling of America’s diverse film heritage: The increased funding enabled the Emory University Huckleberry Finn (1920), the long-unavailable NFPF not only to bolster the number of George Eastman House adaptation of the Mark Twain classic; local films preserved but also to support several newsreels made by Detroit’s first radio station; larger projects of special national signifi- Georgia Archives footage of prominent African Americans in cance. Among the works saved through International Tennis Hall of Fame 1930s Atlanta; the Colorado Fuel and Iron larger awards are recently discovered films iotaCenter Company’s self-portrait of operations in the from the H. Lee Waters series Movies of Japanese American National Museum Jewish