Server: Microsoft-IIS/2.0 Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 16:58:18 GMT Content-Type: text/html Accept-Ranges: bytes Last-Modified: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 17:28:26 GMT Content-Length: 11668 West Coast Video - National Film Registry - Statement

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1997 Film Selections for the National Film Registry Statement

James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress
November 18, 1997

"Good morning. Today, I have the honor of announcing the ninth list of 25 films I have chosen for the National Film Registry, located in the Library of Congress. I have named 200 films during the eight years since the National Film Preservation Act first went into effect. Today's selection will bring the number of films in the Registry to 225. Taken together, these 225 films represent a broad range of American filmmaking -- including Hollywood feature films,documentaries, avant-garde, amateur footage, films of regional interest, ethnic, animated and short film subjects -- all deserving recognition, preservation, and access by future generations. Fittingly, I am able to name these films today in conjunction with the Washington, D.C.meeting of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Their members are true cultural heroes who work at institutions large and small throughout the world and have the daunting but rewarding day-to-day task of preserving the film heritage of America and other nations. Many of the films I name today survive only through the mostly unsung efforts of these archivists and their predecessors.

The National Film Preservation Act of 1996, truly landmark legislation, signifies vital congressional interest in ensuring that motion pictures will survive as an art form and a record of our times. Among other provisions, this legislation mandates 1) the realization of the Library of Congress/National Film Preservation Board's comprehensive national film preservation plan undertaken by Congressional mandate which provides an innovative framework to address the still unmet problems of preserving films as they were originally created and 2) identification of 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films" per year to the National Film Registry.

Regarding the film preservation plan, I am pleased to announce that the Association of Moving Image Archivists is joining with the Library and National Film Preservation Board in the massive effort needed to implement the nearly 100 recommendations found in the film and just-published TV/video preservation plans. In these austere times, Congress demands that as muchas possible be done through collaboration, cooperation, and fresh thinking among all the custodians of America's cultural heritage. In the past few years, several recommendations(including creation of the private sector National Film Preservation Foundation) from the film plan have been effected. AMIA is helping the Library prioritize and develop action strategies forthe remaining recommendations. After I conclude my remarks, AMIA President Andrea Kalas will discuss this important matter further, and I urge your close attention. Through this valued partnership, America's cultural heritage stands to benefit. The Library, the National Film Preservation Board, AMIA, and others working together can rally the collaborative efforts of institutions throughout the United States.

It is not a moment too soon. Despite valiant efforts by archives-- such as the Library of Congress, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House--by the motion picture industry and by others, America's film heritage, by any measure, is an endangered species. 50% of films produced before 1950 and at least 90% made before 1920 have disappeared forever from the "American Memory." Sadly, our enthusiasm for watching films has proven far greater than our commitment to preserving them. And ominously, more films are lost each year -- through the ravages of nitrate deterioration, color-fading and the recently discovered "vinegar syndrome," which threatens the acetate-based (safety) film stock on which the vast majority of motion pictures, past and present, have been preserved.

The annual selection of films to the National Film Registry involves much more than the simple naming of cherished and important films to a prestigious list. This process serves as an invaluable means to advance public awareness of the richness and variety of the American film heritage, and to dramatize the need for its preservation. The Library of Congress does not take lightly its responsibility here; this is not simply another list of great films. Given that Congress established the Registry, and the Registry list is chosen by broad input from the American public and the diverse organizations on the Board, the Registry standsout as a key record of the American cultural experience.

For the 1997 Registry, I selected films after three levels of review: by the general public,by the distinguished members and alternates of the National Film Preservation Board and outside experts they recommended, and, finally, by me in consultation with the Library's motion picture staff. My emphasis, when making these decisions, has been, as Congress intended, to examine each film according to its historical, cultural or aesthetic significance. To make these judgements knowledgeably, I held a full day of discussions with the Board in June, and then screened and reviewed many of the films with our specialists in the Library's Motion Picture Division.

This selection process should not be seen as "The Kennedy Center Honors", "The Academy Awards", "The People's Choice Awards," or even "America's Most Beloved Films."The films we choose are not necessarily either the "best" American films ever made, or the most famous. But they are films that continue to have cultural, historical or aesthetic significance--and in many cases represent many other films deserving of recognition.

The 1996 Act allows me great latitude in naming obscure but important films, rarely viewed today by the film-going public. Such films deserve to be preserved so that we may study them as cultural artifacts, especially now that the Internet will in coming years make it possiblefor the public to access these films more readily, in full compliance with U.S. Copyright law. The selection of a film, I stress, is not an endorsement of its ideology or content, but rather arecognition of the film's importance to American film and cultural history and to history ingeneral. Often nature is not only enriched by art, nature seems to be influenced by--and may be even imitates--art. I hope the American public will note these 25 films, appreciate the artistry involved, and comprehend the importance of protecting these films and the rest of America's endangered film heritage."

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