Programming Philosophy

How does public programming aid in the appreciation (and preservation) of archival materials?

“The core premise driving the festival was the belief that the single most compelling case for preservation is made when spectators in a theatrical setting fall in love with the images on the screen and come to realize viscerally the tragedy of what might have been lost.”

Rosen, Robert. 2002. The UCLA Film & Television Archive: a retrospective look. The Moving Image 2, no. 2. History and overview of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

What are the goals of public programming from the perspective of a moving image archive?

“The purpose of the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art is to trace, catalogue, assemble, preserve, exhibit and circulate to museums and colleges single films or programs of all types of film in exactly the same manner in which the museum traces, catalogs, exhibits and circulates paintings, sculpture, models and photographs of architectural buildings, or reproductions of works of art, so that the film may be studied and enjoyed as any other one of the arts is studied and enjoyed.”

Abbott, John and Iris Barry. 2001. An outline of a project for founding the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art. Quoted in Haidee Wasson. The cinematic subtext of the Modern Museum: Alfred H. Barr and MoMA's Film Archive. The Moving Image 1, no. 1: 2-28. Founding and history of the Museum of Modern Art Film Department and Film Collection.

What are the optimal conditions and venues for archival programming and how do they differ from commercial exhibition?

1. “An interesting chapter outlines the ways theater infrastructure was designed to discreetly signify “art house.” A detailed plan for the conversion of Century Theatres’ New York movie house to an art house theater noted that the manager ‘will be a man of culture….he will wear slacks and sports jackets and will smoke a pipe’ (104). Smaller than mainstream cinemas (300-700 seats), art house cinemas offered intimate surroundings. Many were equipped with lounges, radio listening rooms, and well-stocked powder rooms. Some had art exhibits. They served coffee instead of popcorn. Pathe’s Paris theatre in New York boasted natural birch seats and, as noted in Variety, ‘exhibits of various Gallic products’ (112). And many art house cinemas had no-children policies, which both guaranteed a civilized atmosphere and averted problems with screening uncensored films. In order to distinguish themselves as attractive destinations, Wilinksy argues art house cinemas marketed themselves to an audience anxious to establish itself as cultured.”

Marks, Laura. 2002. Review of Sure Seaters: The Emergence of Art House Cinema by Barbara Wilinsky. The Moving Image 2, no. 1. The reviewed book explores the success of art film theaters in light of changes within both Hollywood and American society in the immediate postwar era.

2. Wilinsky, Barbara. 2001. Sure Seaters: The Emergence of Art House Cinema. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Explores the success of art film theaters in light of changes within both Hollywood and American society in the immediate postwar era.

3. “Beyond the inherent difficulties in finding an archival format, too few media collections engage in research about presentation and accessibility. Going digital is a necessary step in that direction. Browsing a database individually and directly accessing a collection that combined process liberates the user from a given educational path and viewing becomes more of an activity that could resemble an exhibition visit. You browse, stroll, make a choice, correct it, start again. Your activity becomes decisively nonlinear, maybe not even goal oriented. You might criticize such an option and call it zapping through the archive, but on the other hand, you decide how much time to dedicate without being confronted with the traditional modes of ordering, receiving, and returning requested titles.”

Frieling, Rudolf. 2001. Storage and space: notes on collecting, archiving, and presenting digital moving image works. The Moving Image 1, no. 2. Discusses the development of the media library, Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe [ZKM].

4. Doros, Dennis. 2003. Ideas on running a film society. A distributor’s experience as a film programmer with detailed technical and promotional tips.