In 1992, the Librarian of Congress warned that documentaries and home movies were vanishing faster than archives could preserve them. Today, that crisis is not just technical; it’s political. As censorship rises, public institutions are defunded, and climate threats grow — the stakes for filmmakers of color are not just about their own films but ensuring that Black, Brown and Indigenous histories can continue to circulate in society through this form.

Experiment 8

Restoring and Archiving Films to Spark Renewed Interest

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Learning Goal

Can restoring and archiving a beloved archival film create critical discourse and career validation for a filmmaker and help to secure a film’s place within the canon?

Approach

This experiment aimed to understand how preservation and archiving could be used to create critical discourse at a politically potent moment in history, and secure the film’s place within the film canon, while also building career validation for the filmmakers.

Key Takeaways

  • Audience Trust

    Enthusiastic audience response reflected trust in the convening organizations and a desire for sustained connection

  • Resistance Narrative

    Campaign theme of “Preservation as Resistance” connected publicity to current issues from a place of power, positioning audiences as agents of change

  • Trust Decline

    Lower click-throughs to Library of Congress nomination action may point to current distrust of federal institutions

Featured Film

A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF AUDRE LORDE

Directed by Ada Gay Griffin & Michelle Parkerson

90 mins | 1996

Film Nominated by:

Third World Newsreel

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