Among other A.R.I.Q. treasures, the music channel VH1 aired clips of Curtis Mayfield in a documentary and the Public Broadcast Service brought the rights to footage of a teen-age Lena Horne singing at the Cotton Club for yet another documentary. Outside his office, Mr. Lauro pulled and antiquated open reel videotape of the Grateful Dead at Roosevelt Station in 1976 out of a box, a product of a new contract with John Scher, a concert promoter. The arrangement works out well for the owners who are not doing anything with the films anyway. Unlike the Hollywood film, it shows people on the streets talking and doing what they did in 1923. It s really turning into an important historic record.
Nothing lasts forever, including celluloid image.
Cellulose nitrate and camphor, the material used to make film stock up until the 1950's eventually fades to dust- unless they footage goes up in flames, a likely occurrence since the same materials are also used to make explosives. We'll never be able to get in back once its gone. The push for film preservation has taken on a lot of momentum in the past five years. Big-time directors have become immersed in saving or restoring old motion pictures. The film Foundation and other institutions dedicated to film preservation like the University of California at Los Angeles, the American Congress are mainly concerned with raising awareness and money to protect the film archives of major motion pictures studios, in other words Hollywood movies.