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UCLA Film & Television Archive

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UCLA Film & Television Archive
Established1965; 60 years ago (1965)
Location405 Hilgard Ave. Powell Library, Room 46 Los Angeles, CA 90095
TypeAudiovisual archive
Key holdingsJohn H. Mitchell Television Collection, Hearst Metrotone News collection, and collections from Columbia, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox
Collection size500,000 items
DirectorMay Hong HaDuong
Websitehttps://www.cinema.ucla.edu/

The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archive screens over 400 films and videos a year, primarily at the Billy Wilder Theater, located inside the Hammer Museum in Westwood, California. (Formerly, it screened films at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus). The archive is funded by UCLA, public and private interests, and the entertainment industry. It is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives.

The Archive is a division of the UCLA Library. As of January 2021, its collection hosted more than 500,000 items, including approximately 159,000 motion picture titles and 132,000 television titles, more than 27 million feet of newsreels, more than 222,000 broadcast recordings and more than 9,000 radio transcription discs.[1] The archive also has the largest nitrate-safe storage facility on the West Coast, located in Santa Clarita and funded by the Packard Humanities Institute (whom the archive shares the building with) and David Packard.[2]

History

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The UCLA Film and Television Archive was initially created as the ATAS/UCLA Television Library when the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the UCLA Theater Arts Department worked together to create the library in 1965. In 1968, the Film Department of UCLA founded the Film Archive. After this graduate students and staff members began working together to rescue copies of movies that Hollywood studios were discarding. This included nitrate film prints, which are notorious for their instability.[3] The two institutions operated separately until their unification by Robert Rosen, a film preservationist who was appointed director of both the library and archive in 1976.[4] Under the direction of Rosen, the archive began its film preservation and restoration program. The archive hired Robert Gitt, and began restoring several classic films including Double Indemnity, Blonde Venus, and The Big Sleep.[5]

The Archive hosted virtual screenings in lieu of its in-person presentations during the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]

The archive appointed its fourth director, May Hong HaDuong in January of 2021. She was the first woman and person of color to become director of the archive.[7]

The collection

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The Archive has hosted its collection in a Stoa building in Santa Clarita, California since 2015. It shares the facilities with the Packard Humanities Institute. The building was funded and built to the specification of David Woodley Packard.[8]

The archive's holdings include 35mm collections from Paramount Global/Paramount Pictures and Republic Pictures.Disney/20th Century Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery/Warner Bros., Sony/Columbia Pictures, New World Pictures, Amazon/MGM, United Artists and Orion Pictures, NBCUniversal/Universal Pictures, and RKO. Additional film donations have been made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the Directors Guild of America as well as such figures including Hal Ashby, Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Rock Hudson, Jeff Chandler, Radley Metzger, Richard Conte, Audie Murphy, John McIntire, John Wayne, Fred MacMurray[9] and William Wyler. It also holds the entire Hearst Metrotone News Library. The archive is also known for holding over 300 kinescope prints from the now-defunct DuMont Television Network. The archive also holds restored prints of Paramount Pictures' cartoon library. Much of the Archive's collection is available for onsite research by appointment at the Archive's Research & Study Center (ARSC), located on the UCLA campus in Powell Library. ARSC clients often go to the UCLA Media Lab (Room 270) to view their media.

Billy Wilder Theater

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File:Billy Wilder Theater (Hammer Museum) Sept. 2024.JPG
Billy Wilder Theater shown in September of 2024

The Billy Wilder Theater is on the courtyard level of the Hammer Museum. Made possible by a $5 million gift from Audrey L. Wilder and designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, the 295-seat Billy Wilder Theater is the home of the archive's cinematheque and of the Hammer's public programs, which includes artists’ lectures, literary readings, musical concerts, and public conversations.. The theater, which cost $7.5 million to complete, is one of the few in the country where audiences may watch the entire spectrum of moving images in their original formats: from the earliest silent films requiring variable speed projection to the most current digital cinema and video.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Olsen, Mark (January 6, 2021). "May Hong HaDuong first woman and person of color to lead UCLA Film Archive". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  2. ^ Daily, Mary (February 4, 2025). "The Past Is Present". UCLA Magazine. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  3. ^ Daily, Mary (February 4, 2025). "The Past Is Present". UCLA Magazine. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  4. ^ Susu, Alina (November 8, 2024). "Robert Rosen, pioneering director of UCLA Film & Television Archive, dies at 84". Daily Bruin. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
  5. ^ "Our History". UCLA Film & Television Archive. UCLA Film & Television Archive. Retrieved February 23, 2025.
  6. ^ Rhee, Jennifer (September 16, 2021). "New online model connects LGBTQ+ media to global audience". UCLA Library. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  7. ^ Bicho, Ariane (January 6, 2021). "Alumna May Hong HaDuong named director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive". UCLA Newsroom. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  8. ^ Strauss, Bob (August 12, 2019). "UCLA's Film & Television Archive has a classical yet state-of-the-art home at The Stoa in Santa Clarita". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  9. ^ Staff (June 2, 2011). "Smooth Operator: The Opulent Eroticism of Radley Metzger". UCLA Film and Television Archive. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
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