Mission Statement
The history of American cinema is rich with films that inspire, entertain, educate and illuminate. Films are both works of art and cultural and historical documents, representing the collective memories and dreams of the 20th century. But many Americans are not aware that these valuable artifacts of America’s cultural heritage are highly unstable and extremely vulnerable to deterioration. Those who work to preserve the treasures of the first hundred years of cinema are in a race against time.
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Peter Falk & Gena Rowlands in an image from A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974, d. John Cassavetes)
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation - Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection - click image for larger view.
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Fifty percent of all American movies made before 1950 have been destroyed or disintegrated; an astounding eighty percent of the films produced in the United States before 1929 are lost forever. As for shorts, documentaries, newsreels, and other independently produced, “orphan” films, there is simply no way of knowing how many are gone. All types of film are subject to decay, and an improperly stored or handled print or negative may begin to fade and deteriorate in less than ten years. The major American archives are holding more than 150 million feet of film in urgent need of preservation. The Film Foundation’s mission is to ensure that these films—these works of art, historical records, and essential representations of our culture—will survive to be seen and experienced by future generations.
The Film Foundation, the leading non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, was born out of the recognized need for a single influential entity to take the lead in advocating and supporting the preservation of our nation’s cinematic heritage. The organization was founded in 1990 by Martin Scorsese and a distinguished group of fellow filmmakers: Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg. In 2006, they were joined on the Foundation’s board of directors by Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Curtis Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, and Alexander Payne. All are dedicated to protecting motion pictures and the rights of the artists who create them, educating the public about the importance of film preservation, and raising the necessary funds to save the endangered cinematic treasures of the 20th century. The foundation is aligned with the Directors Guild of America, whose President and Secretary-Treasurer also serve on the foundation’s board.
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Image from THE RIVER (1951, d. Jean Renoir).
Restored by the Academy Film Archive, in association with the British Film Institute and Janus Films. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. - Photo courtesy of Janus Films and The Criterion Collection - click image for larger view
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Over the past 19 years, through partnerships with the nation’s leading film archives – Academy Film Archive (Los Angeles, CA); George Eastman House (Rochester, NY); Library of Congress (Washington, DC); Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); and UCLA Film and Television Archive (Los Angeles, CA) – The Film Foundation has identified, managed, and funded the preservation and restoration work of over 525 films that might have otherwise been lost. In addition, The Film Foundation works with the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF), which reaches over 100 regional archives, libraries and historical societies. Through the foundation’s support of NFPF’s Federal Grant program, NFPF has been able to preserve 1,322 films since their inception. The films saved include a broad and exciting range of titles, including studio and independent features, avant-garde works, documentaries, newsreels, home movies, and films from the silent era. The cultural institutions supported by The Film Foundation provide U.S. and international communities with essential access to the immeasurable wealth of our cinematic heritage.
Projects supported by The Film Foundation include: (partial listing) It Happened One Night (1932, d. Frank Capra), How Green was My Valley (1941, d. John Ford), Shadow of a Doubt (1943, d. Alfred Hitchcock), The River (1951, d. Jean Renoir), The Bigamist (1953, d. Ida Lupino), On the Waterfront (1954, d. Elia Kazan), The Night of the Hunter (1955, d. Charles Laughton), Paths of Glory (1957, d. Stanley Kubrick), Shadows (1960, d. John Cassavetes), Lost Lost Lost (1976, d. Jonas Mekas), Eraserhead (1977, d. David Lynch), a collection of early silent-era Italian films from 1910-1920, the complete films of director Satyajit Ray, early 8mm films by experimental filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, and many others.
Additionally, The Film Foundation created The Story of Movies project, the first-ever integrated interdisciplinary curriculum, in recognition of the importance of exposing future generations to classic cinema and teaching them about the cultural, artistic, and historical significance of film. This educational program was distributed, free of charge, to over 25,000 middle school and high schools across the country, reaching over 16 million students in the 2005-2008 school years. Each teaching unit includes DVDs, a teacher’s guide, and a student activities booklet. The first films for study are Robert Mulligan’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) and Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is currently in development and will be distributed this year. The response to this program from students and educators has been overwhelming.
For more information, please contact 323-436-5060 (Los Angeles) and 212-258-0860 (New York) or visit www.film-foundation.org.
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