Archival News

Abstract

Archival News Compiled by Yalie Kamara Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy Film Archive, home to over 90,000 titles, is actively preserving the 16mm home movies of Fayard and Harold Nicholas, who, performing together as the Nicholas Brothers, revolutionized dance entertainment in the earlier part of the twenty-first century with acrobatic moves such as "the leap frog" and performances in films such as 1943's Stormy Weather. In 2011, their home movies, which chronicled the dancers at home and on their extensive travels, were named to the Library of Congress National Film Registry, which honors twenty-five films each year for their contributions to the enrichment of America's film heritage. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. The Nicholas Brothers with Carmen Miranda, courtesy of the Fayard Nicholas Family Home Movie Collection. [End Page 304] Black Film Center/Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington In July 2016, the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) received a collection of media and memorabilia representing the musical career and screen appearances of Ella Fitzgerald. Donors Fran Morris Rosman and Richard Rosman of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation visited the Indiana University campus in Bloomington to announce the donation. In a convivial ceremony officiated by Media School Dean James Shanahan, those gathered shared stories of their great appreciation and fondness for the iconic jazz performer. The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation will be leading celebrations in 2017 to honor the centennial of Fitzgerald's birth. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. The Black Film Center/Archive's JaQuita Joy Roberts with Annie Willis and Fran Morris Rosman (from left to right), July 2016. Photo courtesy of James Brosher, IU Communications. The BFC/A completed its work to preserve filmmaker Jessie Maple's second feature, Twice as Nice (1989), through a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Her earlier feature, Will (1981), brought Maple recognition as the first African American woman to direct and produce a narrative feature film. With her husband and producing partner, Leroy Patton (Twice as Nice's director of photography), Maple collaborated with BFC/A associate director Brian Graney on the film preservation work at Colorlab in Rockville, Maryland. Screenings of the new preservation print were held [End Page 305] at the Indiana University Cinema, with Maple and Patton in attendance, and at BAMcinématek, where it was featured in the film series "One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970–1991." Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 3. Paula and Pamela McGee in Jessie Maple's Twice as Nice (1989), preserved by the Black Film Center/Archive through a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. BFC/A also hosted recent visits from filmmakers Deborah Riley Draper and Julie Dash. Through her documentary film work, Draper seeks to uncover untold and often forgotten stories of the African American experience. Her films Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution (2012) and Olympic Pride, American Prejudice (2016) were both shown at Indiana University Cinema, with support from the College of Arts and Sciences' Themester program. Dash's visit, a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of her masterpiece Daughters of the Dust (1991), featured screenings of the newly released digital restoration of Daughters, along with presentations on 16mm and 35mm of her earlier short films, in prints from the collections of the BFC/A and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. [End Page 306] Film & Media Archive, University Libraries, Washington University in St. Louis The Film & Media Archive (FMA) received a donation of original interviews, photographs, footage, and research files related to two documentary films from Berkeley, California–based Paradigm Productions, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It (2000) and Race Is the Place (2005). All materials in the Paradigm Productions Collection will be available for research to faculty, students, and the public on-site in the Washington University Libraries. Select materials also will be made available online. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 4. A still of Amiri Baraka during filming of Race Is the Place, a documentary by Paradigm Productions, materials for which are now housed in the Washington University Libraries' Film & Media Archive. Also in...