In 1986 the UWM Golda Meir Library and the University's Department of Film embarked upon a common project. Realizing that many important works in the history of experimental film were being neglected by libraries, they set about to create a living archive, a collection that would both chart the development of independent expression in film and also provide a working resource for teachers and students of the medium. The Archive now contains over 200 essential works from the history of experimental cinema in the Cinema Arts Collection. Independent African-American films, such as Charles Burnett's early masterpiece, Killer of Sheep , can be found here, and younger filmmakers' work is to be found in the Archive as well, thus representing a committment to the present and future of the medium in addition to its past. Programs of films from the Archive are screened publicly every semester in the Film Department's excellently maintained 100-seat cinema.
Great care is taken with the films, with each having no more than two screenings in one year.
The collection grows by about 10 films per year and will soon be one of the largest collections of independent film in the world.