Harvard Film Archive

To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)

Our colleague Barbara Flueckiger has been working on an extensive project documenting historic color film processes.  She was working at Harvard last year, and took frame enlargements of some of our prints.

Several images taken from IB Technicolor prints at the Harvard Film Archive can be found here. You can read more about the Technicolor process (a lost technology) on Flueckiger’s site, but the image above can give you a very basic idea of how it worked.  The film stock is B&W, and the color dyes were added to the emulsion.   It’s a fascinating system, resulting in beautiful, incomparable film prints.

The stripes to the left of the picture makes up the soundtrack.  In the image above, the soundtrack is called a variable density track.  Below is a variable area track.

Ms Flueckiger’s work also took her to the Fine Arts Library at Harvard, and several images are available in the section on toning.

We encourage you to click through the site to learn more about each process.  The images from early color processes are unlike anything you’ll see in this century.  The section on hand colored films is stunning, especially if you’ve never seen them reproduced.  There is some material in there on 9.5mm (see previous post).

If these images from TO CATCH A THIEF (one of my favorite movies to watch in an air-conditioned theatre on a hot day) and VERTIGO arouse your interest, keep an eye on our calender, as we hope to show this print at the HFA’s cinemateque later this summer!

Related posts: hand-colored lobby cards
 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hfacollecti…

 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hfacollecti…

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Each semester, the Harvard Film Archive Conservation Center welcomes interns from graduate programs near and far to work with us on our collections and to supplement their theoretical and practical studies in film criticism, archival studies, and filmmaking.  In a new series for the blog, interns will report on their experiences in their own words.  Here’s our first installment, from Simmons ’13 grad John Campopiano:

John, pictured left, alongside fellow HFA intern Max Goldberg, holds one reel of JAWS from the HFA collection after the first annual conservation center pie party.

In my opinion, a sure sign that an internship is destined to succeed is when your supervisor hands you a film to watch within the first five minutes of your first day. Any nervousness I may have felt that morning quickly vanished as I sat down to watch the first of many documentaries by filmmaker Robert Gardner. Gardner’s name was not familiar to me prior to starting work on his paper collection this past January. However, I soon realized how significant this filmmaker was and still is, and quickly began to appreciate his extensive body of ethnographic work that stretched from Ethiopia to Indonesia and covered a time period of over 50 years. I felt honored to have worked on his collection and left feeling as though I have a much more solid understanding of what goes into making an ethnographic film.

What I learned during my experience at the HFA extended beyond the technical skills I had already begun honing in traditional archival work (processing, inventorying, finding aid creation, etc). I also gained valuable insight into the importance of navigating hierarchical protocols within an institution, particularly with respect to requesting and receiving on-site training (I was briefly trained in Harvard’s photo cataloging system), requests for IT support, and so on. Rather than bustling away in a secluded cubicle never to see or interact with those around me (the unfortunate reality with some internships), I felt that my position as intern was included into some of the daily work flows and, perhaps more importantly, valued – enough so that I was able to experience, firsthand, the dynamics of receiving training and even providing my own insight and opinion when appropriate. For an internship aimed at encompassing the experience of the Simmons GSLIS program and, ideally, preparing the student for entry into the “real working world,” I couldn’t be happier with my experience at the HFA.

Another rewarding element of the internship was seeing how films can be a strong catalyst for everyday interaction among staff members. In an office that includes not only HFA staff and interns but additional Harvard Library staff, it was wonderful to see how a screening of a Super 8 at the end of a work day or chat about a film on the way back to one’s desk could connect people and provide a common ground for conversation and friendly interaction. This, among many other reasons including some of the technical skills developed, made me truly appreciate my internship experience and look forward to coming in each and every time.

Also, PIE & JAWS

Today we are pleased to announce that the finding aid for the Robert Gardner Collection of paper materials is now available online.

Robert Gardner Collection, 1950-2008: An Inventory

Let us know if you have any questions!

Just shy of one year ago we announced to you here on our humble blog that work had begun on Karen Aqua’s extensive collection of animation.

Well I’m back today to announce that the project is complete!  What does this mean for you,  dear reader?

First, you can view a comprehensive list of all material in the collection here.

Next, you can visit us at our office in Cambridge to view these films and videos by contacting our research liaison to set up a research appointment.

In addition, you can read a little more about Karen Aqua’s life and films here and here, or watch a few of her animations online here.

And finally, as always, you can contact us if you need more information about this or any of the other 25,000+ items in our collection.

Greetings from the HFA’s Conservation Center!

From the Boston Public Library’s collection.

I’m very pleased to announce that as of today, the majority of the Harvard Film Archive’s cataloging records, representing over 23,000 films and videotapes, are search-able through HOLLIS, the Harvard Library system’s online catalog.

For years, information about our material has been only accessible at the HFA offices.  For most of its life as an institution, the HFA functioned without a full-time cataloger.

Finally, we have put a foot tentatively into the 21st century.  Not only do we have a full-time cataloger on staff, we also have migrated our data out of our in-house database and into something you can search from the privacy of your phone.  Baby steps, of course.  Right now, most records you will see on HOLLIS are “stub” records, showing basic fields such as Title, Director, Country of Origin, Format, etc..  For more detailed information, you will still have to contact HFA staff.

Here is an example of a new “stub” record, from a new collection at the HFA:

Up to this point, our cataloger was creating each online record artisan-style, sometimes doing copy-cataloging, but often creating records for locally sourced, unique items from scratch.  Until this automated project was completed, 4,000 records were available on HOLLIS, or about 15% of our holdings.

Once we have the records uploaded to WorldCat (there are a few technical details delaying this), our collection will be Google-able.

This project was made possible through Harvard University’s Library Lab program.  Many, many thanks to everyone who has worked on this project.  The migration of the Filemaker data to MARC and into ALEPH was not as straightforward as we had hoped, and many gremlins had to be ferreted out.  Hopefully this project will pave the way for other repositories at Harvard to use a similar system of automated data export.

We are very pleased with the results, and are excited to discover what happens next.  We’re expecting research requests to increase, and for the HFA’s collection to occupy a more visible space in the Library system.  In the meantime, our cataloger continues to plug away, creating elegant, meaningful records out of these “stubs”.

It is with mixed emotions the Harvard Film Archive announces an exciting new acquisition – the Anne Charlotte Robertson Collection.  Anne died this September in hospice after a battle with cancer, and left her extensive work to the HFA.  [obituary]

Anne Charlotte Robertson was a Super 8 filmmaker and diarist who lived in Framingham, MA.  She began making films in the mid-1970s as an undergrad at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and earned her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art.  Her main work is the 38-hour opus, FIVE YEAR DIARY, which she began in 1981 and kept far longer than five years.  Each episode of the diary, spanning varying numbers of days, is 27 minutes (approximately 8 camera rolls) and the diary is 84 reels long.  In addition to the FIVE YEAR DIARY, Anne made over 30 other (mostly diaristic) short films, including APOLOGIES (1990), TALKING TO MYSELF (1985), MAGAZINE MOUTH (1983), and MELON PATCHES, OR REASONS TO GO ON LIVING (1994).

Spirit of ’76

Ms. Robertson used a sound super 8 camera, and the films have many layers of soundtrack.  The original screenings were performances if Anne was in attendance.  There is the original sound on film, recorded at the same time as the picture, there are often also audio cassettes she would play with the film, and she spoke over the film as well.

Anne took the written diary form and extended it to include documentary, experimental and animated filmmaking techniques. She did not shy away from exposing any parts of her physical situation or emotional life.  She became a pioneer of personal documentary and bravely shared experiences and observations on being a vegetarian, her cats, organic gardening, food, and her struggles with weight, her smoking and alcohol addictions, and depression (she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder).   Romance (or lack thereof) and obsession are long-running themes in the DIARY films, as is the cycle of life.  In the films, Anne sows seeds, reaps vegetables, cooks and pickles them, composts the scraps.  She buries family members and beloved cats, notes the changing seasons, contemplates suicide, has nervous breakdowns, creates films, pines for her celebrity crush (Tom Baker of Doctor Who), finds religion, and obsessively documents her own life in film, paper, and audio tape.

Anne didn’t shy away from documenting her own weaknesses.  Weight and diets are addressed throughout the work.  Her struggle with mental illness is investigated again and again.  She made a film while undergoing a nervous breakdown.  She talks about being hospitalized, taking prescription drugs, and fearing the next breakdown.  In the layered audio of the DIARY film, she explains what was going through her head when she shot certain things – here she is looking for signs in the everyday; here she is obsessively visually cataloging her garbage; here she is worrying she is causing pain to the root vegetables she means to eat – a problem solved by re-planting them.

LOCOMOTION (1981)

Ms. Robertson’s films were shown all over the world, often at super 8 – specific festivals.  Her work touched many people, and inspired a number of women filmmakers.  In 2001, she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking.

The material given to the Harvard Film Archive includes the original films, film prints, video copies of the films, as well as the intellectual and distribution rights.  The collection also includes scores of hours of audio tape, papers (including diaries and letters), and photographs.

The HFA is working with the award –winning small gauge film lab Brodsky and Treadway to preserve these unique films by creating new digital masters, incorporating the disparate soundtracks, and will make them available for rental.  Anne had recorded her usually performed audio for some of the DIARY films, and masters have been created using both sound elements (the recordings and the sound-on-film).  She left scripts with some of her DIARY films, and requested that someone record the performed audio for future preservation work.

The following titles, as a condition of the will, remain unavailable until 2023:

SUICIDE (1979)

HOMEBIRTH (1980)

FRUIT (1985)

THE NUDE (1987)

WITH CLOTHES (1987)

TALKING TO MYSELF #2 (1988)

WEIGHT (1988)

DIET (1988)

Some of the DIARY films will also be unavailable (titles forthcoming).

The HFA will be presenting a weekend of the works of Anne Robertson in September 2013 on the anniversary of her death.

For information regarding showing Anne Robertson’s films, please contact the Harvard Film Archive’s print trafficker, Mark Johnson at: mhjohns[at]fas[dot]harvard[dot]edu.

For more information about the collection, please contact the HFA’s film conservator, Liz Coffey: coffey[at]fas[dot]harvard[dot]edu

We’re pleased to announce  Saturday, October 20th, the HFA will host, in conjunction with Somerville Community Access Television (SCATV), the 10th annual Boston area Home Movie Day.

The event will take place in Somerville’s Union Square, at SCATV, 90 Union Square.  Union Square is served by several bus lines, including the 86 and 69 from Harvard Square, and the 91 from Central Square in Cambridge.

Watch our video promo!

Each year we discover new treasures at Home Movie Day.  We’ve seen teenage versions of spy movies, lovingly shot family films of children long since grown, travels to exotic and not so exotic lands, and everything in between.

Read about 2010′s event here.

Thanks to the Globe for Sunday’s article, which you can read here.

Why home movies? Because these little films, yours, or your grandma’s, or the ones you found at the dump, are unique and personal, potentially interesting, funny, pretty, fascinating and strange, and certainly worth a watch. Be the star of the show!

We provide the screen, projectors, projectionists, film inspectors, music, and information about film preservation and home movies in general, you provide the films.

The films you bring can be new or old (but don’t bring films we’ve shown at Home Movie Days past), they can belong to you or someone else. They should be amateur (not mass-produced), but those are the only guidelines.

Check in with your films at 11am
Films will screen noon-3pm.

We can show your home movies on super 8, 8mm, 16mm, VHS, DVD, or other video format.  Video is limited to 5 minutes.  Local film archivists will be on hand to discuss home movie preservation.

Each film must be inspected for damage before being run on a projector, so please drop off your film as early as you can.  If possible, drop off your film at the HFA office or SCATV the week prior to the event.

At the Harvard Film Archive’s Conservation Center, we work long days.  To keep up morale, we watch the occasional cat film or video.

Knowing our penchant for cat movies, last year our intern Matt sent us this poster:

Intercat ’73 Second International Cat Film Festival, design by Sandra Kopell

We loved the name, Intercat ’73, as it felt so modern, and because many of our fave cat movies appear on the Internet.

Naturally, we thought about hosting our own cat film festival.  Then this happened.  The Walker Art Center in Mineapolis hosted the first Internet Cat Video Film Festival!  We figured they were better equipped than we were for such an event (ten thousand attendees!) and kind of put our dream on the back burner.

However, spurred by the recent upload of our new favorite film (more about this later) by our friend and fellow film caretaker Skip at AV GEEKS, we’ve decided do dedicate a corner of the blog to our own festival, which you can watch from the privacy of your phone anytime and anyplace (please, not while you’re in a movie theatre “watching” another movie)!  Inspired by the magic of the internets and by the poster above, we’re calling this venture INTERCATNET ’12.  We look forward to your suggestions on films to watch and comments on films you’ve seen.  Search related posts by clicking on the Intercatnet category at the right.

Až přijde kocour (Vojtech Jasný, Czechoslovakia, 1963)

As part of our research, we watched an unusual Czech film on a VHS from Harvard’s library.  Až přijde kocour or CASSANDRA CAT (Vojtech Jasný, 1963).  The VHS copy was poorly dubbed, and I think the film is a little too long, but it’s a pretty crazy children’s fantasy film about traveling circus and a cat that wears sunglasses, which, when removed, turn people different colors that betray their true selves.

I hope you enjoyed that one.  We have a 35mm print in the HFA’s collection, but it is, sadly, in poor shape.

THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS (uncredited, USA, 1938) is a film made for the kindergarten set, and it tells the tale of three little kittens growing up on a farm.  Live action with narration, this B&W gem is a real crowd-pleaser.   We showed it to some Harvard library staff recently, and most of them had a good time (although one of them was brought back to the frustration of youth – why didn’t *he* get chosen to run the 16mm projector?).

So many of our favorite educational films are available on The Internet Archive.  While you’re there, have a look around!  Click on the photo to watch this heartwarming tale of kittens and how everyone eventually has to make their own way in this world.

 http://archive.org/details/ThreeLit1938?…

But what about that film that caused this incredible film festival blog thingy called INTERCAT ’12 to come to fruition?

AV Geeks are digitizing 40 miles of their film (approximately 98 hours) collection and putting it up on youtube.  This film caught our attention, and is destined to be an HFA favorite, to be viewed on those dark days of winter and those long days of summer whenever the mood strikes.

In MOTHER CAT AND HER BABY SKUNKS (produced by Ruth O Bradley, 1958), a mother cat with three kittens adopts three orphaned baby skunks, who are sort of the same size as her kittens.  She raises all six in the barnyard, and they get on like gangbusters.  This charming tale of acceptance in the face of adversary and the kindness of mother cats is B&W, live action, and narrated by someone who had seen THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS, and is aimed at the same age group (but is completely appropriate for your age, too!).

Click here to watch the cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy-1Km3NpQc&list=UUV78nuSmJxTtHaD4wnzPJkA&index=2&feature=plcp

We hope you have enjoyed the movies and will tune in for the next installment of INTERCATNET ’12!

INTERCATNET!

***update:  the video available on archive.org has been updated with highly improved audio, making for a much more enjoyable viewing experience***

In memoriam of Chris Marker, the great film essayist and multimedia artist who passed away in late July, we are posting a video documenting a special event that was part of the HFA’s May 2009 event, The Second Life of Chris Marker.  Chris Marker – in the form of his avatar – guided archive director Haden Guest and an eager audience through the popular internet portal Second Life.  The video captures and (we hope) memorializes this somewhat chaotic, sometimes silly,  and ultimately exciting event – crashed by flying and gyrating avatars within Second Life – and documents one of the self-described “publiphobic” artists’ few interviews.

The Second Life of Chris Marker – Harvard Film Archive (May 16, 2009)

An audio only version of the event is also available for streaming within our visiting director’s audio collection:

Harvard Film Archive Visiting Directors Audio Collection, 2009

At the Harvard Film Archive, we are often seeking interns who will receive course credit in exchange for an unpaid internship with us.

Current internships include:

* Organize, inventory, re-house, and create a finding aid for a filmmaker’s papers

* Inspect, identify, re-house, and create a finding aid for a small 16mm film collection

* Work with our public programmer to organize and upload a digital archive of promotional materials

If you are interested in any of these internships, contact Liz Coffey, the HFA’s Film Conservator.

We are full up for the Spring semester, but do have openings for the upcoming fall and next summer.