The Film Foundation

Last updated
The Film Foundation
Founded1990
Founder Martin Scorsese
Type Non-profit organization
Location
  • United States
Website film-foundation.org

The Film Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director Martin Scorsese and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation raises funds and awareness for film preservation projects and creates educational programs about film. The foundation and its partners have restored more than 900 films.

Contents

Background

Martin Scorsese in 1995 Scorsese 01.jpg
Martin Scorsese in 1995

As of 1997, more than half of all films made before 1950 had been lost, and a mere 10% of those produced in the US prior to 1929 survived. Even films made in Eastmancolor after 1950 were already deteriorating. [1] Because of the risk of deterioration and color fading as films age, Martin Scorsese "began his film preservation crusade in 1980", [2] educating both the industry and the public about the problem. [3]

In 1990, Scorsese created The Film Foundation together with Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg, who all sat on the foundation's original board of directors. [4] [5] In 2006, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Curtis Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee and Alexander Payne joined them. [6] In 2015, Christopher Nolan also joined the board. [7]

Description

The foundation has been called "the leading organization devoted to fundraising, increasing awareness of preservation, and issuing grants to safeguard this country's cinematic heritage." [6] It aids in preserving movie history by providing support for preservation projects at film archives. Since its inception, the foundation has helped save more than 600 movies. [8] The foundation seeks to promote the exhibition (as well as preservation) of classic cinema. [9] Since 2002, the foundation has been affiliated with the Directors Guild of America, working out of the Guild's offices in New York and Los Angeles and sharing two officers who also sit on the foundation's board. [6]

The foundation also creates educational programs such as "The Story of Movies", a free interdisciplinary curriculum that the foundation has distributed to millions of students and tens of thousands of classrooms. It teaches about the cultural significance of film and the importance of preservation. [10] [11] The curriculum "is intended to teach kids to think critically about what they see in film, and to consider the filmmaking process and decisions made along the way. It also helps students place films in a historical context, using them as a springboard for conversations about social issues." [12]

The Academy Film Archive houses The Film Foundation Collection. The collection consists primarily of newly struck prints on nearly 100 titles. [13] The Film Foundation, UNESCO, and the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes jointly run The African Film Heritage Project, which preserves culturally significant movies made in Africa and allows Africans to see those movies, as many of them received only limited distribution on their home continent. [14]

By 2021, the foundation and its partners had restored more than 900 films. [15]

The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room launched May 9, 2022, with the presentation of the 1945 film I Know Where I'm Going! Screenings will run on the second Monday of each month and feature introductions and post-screening conversations about the importance of the films. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese</span> American filmmaker (born 1942)

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American filmmaker. He emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. Scorsese has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

<i>Raging Bull</i> 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese

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<i>Goodfellas</i> 1990 American film by Martin Scorsese

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Nolan</span> British-American filmmaker (born 1970)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Dash</span> American filmmaker and author

Julie Ethel Dash is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. After Dash had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Stemming from the film's success, Dash also released novels of the same title in 1992 and 1999. The film was later a key inspiration for Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Film preservation</span> Historic preservation of motion pictures

Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the widest sense, preservation assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible.

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Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are an American screenwriting duo, best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term "anti-biopic" to describe the genre they invented: Movies about people who don't deserve one.They are uninterested in the traditional "great man" story, focusing instead on obscure strivers in American pop culture. Their works in this genre include Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon, Big Eyes, Dolemite Is My Name, and the series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of motion picture history. Although the current incarnation of the Academy Film Archive began in 1991, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired its first film in 1929.

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The American Cinematheque is an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.

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<i>Hugo</i> (film) 2011 historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese

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Cinephilia is the term used to refer to a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism. The term is a portmanteau of the words cinema and philia, one of the four ancient Greek words for love. A person with a passionate interest in cinema is called a cinephile, cinemaphile, filmophile, or, informally, a film buff. To a cinephile, a film is often not just a source of entertainment as they see films from a more critical point of view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film Registry</span> Selection of films for preservation in the US Library of Congress

The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural, and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB's inception in 1988.

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is a non-profit arts organization based in New York founded in 2003 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation</span>

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Film Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization, based in Mumbai, India, dedicated to film preservation, restoration and archiving of India’s film heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shivendra Singh Dungarpur</span>

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is an Indian filmmaker, producer, film archivist and restorer. He is best known for his films Celluloid Man, The Immortals and CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel. He has also directed several award-winning commercials and public service campaigns under the banner of Dungarpur Films.

References

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  2. Kenny, Glenn. "'With Love and Resolution': An Appreciation", Humanities, The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Vol. 34, No. 2, March/April 2013
  3. Slide, pp. 107–08
  4. McNary, Dave. "Doc org fetes Scorsese", Variety, October 19, 2000, accessed October 20, 2014; and Cruickshank, Douglas. "Martin Scorsese: Teaching Visual Literacy", edutopia.org, October 19, 2006, accessed November 3, 2014
  5. The Criterion Collection. "30 Years of The Film Foundation: Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster Conversation Clip", YouTube, November 15, 2020
  6. 1 2 3 Pond, Steve. "Save the Day", DGA Quarterly, Directors Guild of America, Spring 2007, accessed November 12, 2014
  7. Mike Fleming, Mike Jr. "Christopher Nolan Joins Film Foundation Board", Deadline, April 22, 2015, accessed May 31, 2018
  8. Bacardi, Francesca. "Variety to Honor Martin Scorsese at Unite4:Humanity Event", Variety , February 20, 2014
  9. Cohn, Lawrence. "Scorsese leads tribute to filmmaker Antonioni", Variety, October 20, 1992, accessed October 29, 2014
  10. Wloszczyna, Susan. "Learning life's lessons from film", USA Today , September 30, 2010, accessed October 20, 2014
  11. Childs, B. "The Story of Movies", Teach.com, May 4, 2012, accessed October 20, 2014
  12. Standen, Amy. "The Story of Movies: Understanding Films and Filmmaking", edutopia.org, October 19, 2006, accessed October 29, 2014
  13. "The Film Foundation Collection", Academy Film Archive, accessed July 6, 2016
  14. "Ottawa film scholar teams up with Martin Scorsese to restore lost African classics", CBC News , July 25, 2017
  15. Pedersen, Lise. "Working with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation Analyzed at France’s Lumière Festival", Variety, October 15, 2021
  16. "Scorsese's Film Foundation launches free virtual theatre". AP News. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.

Sources

Further reading

See also