Today's post is by Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives' Motion Picture Preservation Lab. In honor of Veterans Day, we are proud to share the National Archives' digital restoration of John Huston’s Let There Be Light (Local Identifier: 111-M-1241), the groundbreaking film about the treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) of … Continue reading The Preservation and Restoration of John Huston’s “Let There Be Light”
Have you ever wondered how moving images and sound recordings get declassified? The process isn’t as simple as you might think. Because our records are media based - film, video or audio - the review process takes a few extra steps. Agencies transfer classified moving images and sound recordings to NARA according to Records Control … Continue reading From Top Secret Vault to Open Stacks: Declassification of Moving Images
Today’s post is from Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab, which is responsible for performing conservation and preservation work on motion picture records held across the National Archives. Recently, she completed a digital restoration of The March. The March, the James Blue film documenting the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs … Continue reading Protecting Your Past–It’s What We Do Here: The Preservation and Restoration of The March
Today's post is from Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab, which is responsible for performing conservation and preservation work on motion picture records held across the National Archives. Recently, she completed a digital restoration of The March (306.765). On August 10th, 1963 The U.S. Government, under the auspices of … Continue reading Making The March
“I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese Government...” At 7 pm on August 14, 1945, President Harry Truman stood before reporters gathered at the White House and announced the unconditional surrender of Japan. The Pacific War was over. Although the formal signing of the terms of surrender ending World War II would not occur until September 2nd, the … Continue reading “Celebration of V-J Day, 08/14/1945”
We discussed Curious Alice in a previous blog post and explained why, although it’s beautifully animated and contains some fantastic imagery, it fails at communicating an anti-drug message. Read on to find out how we preserved this title! In the Motion Picture Preservation lab, we’re enthralled by the film preservation stories that make headlines just … Continue reading Preserving Curious Alice
What's the difference between these objects? A reel of 16mm film.An object of similar size and shape that is actually a 1″ video. If you’re one of the people who can immediately identify the objects in the images seen here, the answer to this question is easy. But with the way the language has evolved … Continue reading Film Preservation 101: What’s the Difference Between a Film and a Video?
Mission Preservation! Technical Assessment of the Films of the Defense Visual Information Center in the Motion Picture Preservation Lab In 2006, the National Archives accessioned over 2700 titles from the Defense Visual Information Center (DVIC). By the time the 51 pallets (coming to 40 tons!) of motion picture and video records arrived at Archives II … Continue reading What Would You Do If 40 Tons of Records Arrived on Your Doorstep?
