Margaret Herrick Library

Margaret Herrick Library

Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study

The Margaret Herrick Library collects a wide range of materials documenting film as both an art form and an industry. The library is supported through the Academy Foundation, the educational and cultural arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Although privately funded, the library is open to the public. One of the world's most extensive and comprehensive research collections on the subject of motion pictures, the library holds more than 32,000 books; 1,800 periodical titles; 60,000 screenplays; 200,000 clipping files; 30,000 posters; lobby cards, pressbooks and other advertising ephemera; over 8 million photographs; over 300 manuscript and other special collections relating to prominent industry individuals, studios and organizations; sheet music, music scores and sound recordings; production and costume sketches; artifacts; and oral histories. The Research Library, founded in 1928 and later named the Margaret Herrick Library after a former Academy librarian and long-time executive director, maintains a world-renowned, non-circulating reference and research collection devoted to the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and as an industry. It is regarded as one of the most complete collections of film-related materials ever assembled.

Margaret Herrick: http://www.oscars.org/mhl/biography.html

Library Director: Linda Harris Mehr
(310) 247-3000, extension 201
lmehr@oscars.org

Ubu Web

UbuWeb is pleased to present dozens of avant-garde films & videos for your viewing pleasure. However, it is important to us that you realize that what you will see is in no way comparable to the experience of seeing these gems as they were intended to be seen: in a dark room, on a large screen, with a good sound system and, most importantly, with a roomful of warm, like-minded bodies.

However, we realize that the real thing isn't very easy to get to. Most of us don't live anywhere near theatres that show this kind of fare and very few of us can afford the hefty rental fees, not to mention the cumbersome equipment, to show these films. Thankfully, there is the internet which allows you to get a whiff of these films regardless of your geographical location.

We realize that the films we are presenting are of poor quality. It's not a bad thing; in fact, the best thing that can happen is that seeing a crummy shockwave file will make you want to make a trip to New York to the Anthology Film Archives or the Lux Cinema in London (or other places around the world showing similar fare). Next best case scenario will be that you will be enticed to purchase a high quality DVD from the noble folks trying to get these works out into the world. Believe me, they're not doing it for the money.

Please support these filmmakers and their distributors by purchasing their films. Please support the presenters of these works by going to see them in theatres whenever you can. We've complied a list of places where you can see them and buy them:


Distributors:

Founded in 1962 and located in New York City, The Film-Maker's Cooperative distributes more than 5,000 films in all gauges as well as videos:
www.film-makerscoop.com

Begun in 1961 as a screening series and established as a distributor in 1967, Canyon Cinema has more than 3500 films available for rent:
www.canyoncinema.com

The Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) has been Canada's foremost non-commercial distributor of independent film since 1967:
www.cfmdc.org

The Lux Centre in London is the largest distributor of artist film in England and their site offers information about renting and buying films, as well as preservation tips for artists:
www.lux.org.uk

Founded in 1982 and located in Paris, Light Cone offers more than 2,300 films:
www.lightcone.org

Chicago's Video Data Bank has represented one of the major collections of video art in North America since 1976:
www.vdb.org

Established in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) represents 175 artists and offers for rent or for sale more than 3,000 works:
eai.org/eai

Re:Voir began selling high quality video copies of renowned avant-garde films in 1994 and is today the premiere international label for experimental film artists:
www.re-voir.com
www.usa.re-voir.com

The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF)

The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. We support activities nationwide that preserve American films and improve film access for study, education, and exhibition. The NFPF started operations in November 1997, thanks to the generous support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Film Foundation. Many in the entertainment and foundation community have pitched in to help. Our top priority is saving American films that would be unlikely to survive without public support. Over the past eight years, we have developed grant programs to help libraries, museums, and archives preserve films and make them available for study and research. Our grants award federal funds secured through the leadership of the Library of Congress and preservation services donated by public-spirited laboratories and post-production houses. We also organize, obtain funding, and manage cooperative projects that enable film archives—large and small—to work together on national preservation initiatives. Published through these collaborations are the first-ever DVD set of film treasures preserved by Americans archives (2000), a new critically acclaimed 3-DVD box set of films from the first four decades of the motion picture, The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (2004), and the international database for locating silent films. In the fall of 2005 we will begin work on The Industrial and Institutional Films: A Field Guide.

http://www.filmpreservation.org/

gettyimages

Getty Images creates and distributes the world's best and broadest imagery collections, making them available in the most accessible and usable way -- 24 hours a day, every day. From contemporary creative imagery to news, sports, entertainment and archival imagery, our products are found each day in the full range of traditional and digital media worldwide.

Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein founded Getty Images in 1995 with the goal of turning a disjointed and fragmented stock photography market into a thriving, modernized industry able to meet the changing needs of visual communicators. We were the first company to license imagery via the web, moving the entire industry online.

Today, gettyimages.com serves an average of 3.2 billion thumbnails, 7.3 million visits and 4 million unique users in addition to an average of 175 million page views each month. Nearly 100 percent of the company’s visual content is delivered digitally.

The company frequently receives industry recognition for both its photography and its business accomplishments. In 2005, American Photo Magazine acknowledged the company’s commitment to the photography industry, naming Getty Images’ co-founders Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty as number one of “The 100 Most Important People in Photography."

http://www.gettyimages.com/Footage/FootageHome.aspx?country=usa&brandid=14

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress began collecting motion pictures in 1893 when Thomas Edison and his brilliant assistant W.K.L. Dickson deposited the Edison Kinetoscopic Records for copyright. However, because of the difficulty of safely storing the flammable nitrate film used at the time, the Library retained only the descriptive material relating to motion pictures. In 1942, recognizing the importance of motion pictures and the need to preserve them as a historical record, the Library began the collection of the films themselves. From 1949 on these included films made for television. Today the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) has responsibility for the acquisition, cataloging and preservation of the motion picture and television collections. The Division operates the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room to provide access and information services to an international community of film and television professionals, archivists, scholars and researchers.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/