The Independent's Archive Preservation Project

Boxes of the print magazine line the floor of Zingerplatz Pictures' office.

You say a piece of film history needs to be preserved, I'm so there!

Yes, that's right, your tax-deductible contribution gets us one step closer to the rescue and preservation of more than 30 years of irreplaceable print magazines. In the last year alone, we've fielded half a dozen requests for articles that we cannot access or retrieve.

Contribute now via PayPal or mail us a check.

But wait, didn't you ask me for money last year...?

Worthy point, in November 2010, we raised enough cash for Phase One: Rescue and Retrieval. Those funds allowed us to have 106 boxes sprung from a New Jersey warehouse and shipped to Salem, MA where one incredibly generous filmmaker (and former AIVF member) loaned a side of his office to The Independent. In that time, we saw Joe Cultrera's moving personal documentary, Hand of God, and felt extra grateful to share space with a guy who really knows his filmmaking. We thought we could accomplish Phase Two in a month, but had to ask for, in true indie fashion, an extension. And another one. And more coffee.

What's Phase Two?

Glad you asked, Phase Two started out as Phase Two: Preservation and Digitization and sputtered into neutral at Phase Two: I., A., Steps 1-592. That's our smart-ish way of saying that unloading, examining, and inventorying the boxed contents required enormous concentration, not to mention strong backs, and could not have been accomplished without the help of architectural historian Christine Finn and former MIT archivist and filmmaker John Melczer. They helped create a system to count and organize 4,000+ pounds of magazines, only stopping on occasion to ooh and ahh at past covers and eat the pickle-of-the-month here.

In between the heavy lifting, points of wisdom arrived through the supportive librarians at the Library of Congress, Northeastern University, Pacific Film Archive, UMass Amherst, Harvard Business School--all shared interest in the project and razor sharp advice. And then David Rowntree, a film archivist with expertise perfectly suited to our project, happened to relocate to Boston and raise his hand when we yelled, "Is anyone out there?"

Anyone? Anyone?

Then, as leaves took bud and pants took leave in spring 2011, we successfully completed the print collections of The Independent at Harvard College Library, the Library of Congress, and the Pacific Film Archive. What a relief to know that such fine institutions house and protect our shared history of independent storytelling, especially in the US.

Along with magazines came the historical papers of the Foundation for Independent Video and Filmmakers/Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers and we are still considering where to house those documents for future scholarship. Ultimately, we want all of the organization's records to be preserved and accessible.

Our thought has always been to scan the print archive into digital, searchable files, for future generations of film scholars and web crawlers, thus part two of Phase Two: Preservation and Digitization. (We learned about crawling here.) Digitization is a major undertaking. We've looked into some options but we needed to muster our energy before forging ahead. That's where things stand as of fall 2011.

Scholars and crawlers? I just want to read early Manohla Dargis essays and find out what Kathryn Bigelow was up to two decades before she won an Oscar.

Stick with us long enough, and we'll deliver just that, right here, online, free to the independently curious public. We ask your patience and continued support, though, because Phase Three: Free Film History is really a complete misnomer.

It won't be free, it's more than film, and it's The Independent's future. We're convinced that our archives are living, breathing documents that will matter as much, possibly even more tomorrow than the day they rolled off the press. We need you to see this project through.

Anyone? Anyone?

Helloooo?

Since there's a slight chance you're reading and thinking, hey I am out here, it can't hurt to repeat that contributions are accepted via PayPal or by check sent USPS.

This story was originally published in November 2010 and has been updated several times since.