Description

Since 2017, I have worked with students to create an on-campus film studies archive that has been evolving in exciting ways. It has grown from a few dusty metal cabinets to an overflowing office of 250 films,12,000 slides, numerous media journals, books, and posters, and a menagerie of editing and viewing equipment. Last year, we developed a partnership with University Relations for a new campus space to ensure the long-term expansion of the archive, and we have begun moving into the new space. With the field's  digital turn in mind, we also have successfully digitized our first film. All of these efforts have expanded opportunities for student research and professionalization. Having centered this year’s pilot study on migrating our collection into a new space, this  forward-looking project continues to explore the many challenges, questions, and opportunities that analogue and digital humanities tools present for today’s media scholars, as digitization offers new means for creating, preserving, sharing, and “thinking” moving image archives. The overall objectives and methods of this project include providing access to rare materials and developing spaces for collaborative projects (with Association of Moving Image Archives), while engaging in dynamic forms of scholarly production and online publishing.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Through this project, the student will learn professional methods and workflows to preserve and archive 16mm film and paper archives for posterity, and will actively ensure that these materials can be used for on-campus and in-class research and programming for many years to come. This involves manually inspecting the paper archives, assessing the films’ projection quality, doing the necessary splicing or repairs, and digitizing selected clips and materials. The student will also contribute to researching and indexing these materials for an online platform that recent fellows have been developing. In addition, the student will evaluate the functionality of some of the archive’s equipment and determine whether repairs are necessary, and find opportunities to integrate the archive’s materials in the Film Studies curriculum. The student will also have opportunities to assist in organizing and curating local, national, and international archival film and media events.

Desired Qualifications

None listed.