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In this series of interviews, we highlight the diversity of work being done behind the scenes at UCLA Film & Television Archive to preserve and showcase the history of moving images.
What is your role as film preservationist?
Saving a little bit of history.
What are some of the challenges of film preservation?
Most of the films I work on are 75 - 85 years old. The original negative is often long gone, decomposing or damaged. After inspecting the existing elements and determining the best quality, it's my job to seamlessly integrate the various elements and restore the film to its entirety. This might involve borrowing film from other institutions, sorting through foreign and domestic versions of the same title, researching the history of the film, reading old continuity scripts, recreating main titles or filling in missing dialogue. All without compromising the authenticity of the film.
What aspect of preservation work do you enjoy most?
Showing the newly restored film in a large theater filled with avid moviegoers who are delighted to see a lost gem on the big screen once again.
Could you tell us about the UCLA Festival of Preservation projects you worked on?
The original negative for She-Devil Island (1936) was missing. I pieced the film together from three different prints, all of which were damaged and incomplete. Accomplishing this so that the average moviegoer wouldn't notice the diverse source material was a labor-intensive effort. I had never seen the film before, but after repeated viewings really came to love it. Bamba!
I'm very happy that we were able to bring a “lost” film noir, Open Secret (1948), back to the big screen. One of the few films John Reinhardt directed in Hollywood, this gritty murder mystery is a stylish exposé of social injustice.
What’s an underrated film more people should know about?
Insignificance (1985). A Professor (Albert Einstein), Actress (Marilyn Monroe), Ballplayer (Joe DiMaggio) and Senator (Joe McCarthy) are brought together in New York City during a summer day in 1954 to discuss the Theory of Relativity, fame, politics, love and the end of civilization. Nicholas Roeg's superb cinematic adaptation of the Terry Johnson play weaves a tale of time and space with humor and despair. Then and now, critics don't seem to know what to make of this film. In today's political climate of fake news, conspiracy theories and talk of nuclear arms proliferation, the film seems more relevant than ever. It's 8:15 somewhere.
2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation screens March 3 - 27. See the complete schedule >
—Jennifer Rhee, Digital Content Manager
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