From building the iconic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood to
discovering stars such as Marlon Brando and Grace Kelly, filmmaker
Stanley Kramer remains a vital part of film history.
When it came time to preserve that history, Kramer donated his
films and memorabilia to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Kramer is just one of many important filmmakers and institutions
which donate to the archive, which finished its biannual Festival
of Preservation Aug. 24.
The festival’s program notes include personal submissions
from the likes of Hugh Hefner, George Lucas, and Dustin Hoffman.
The festival also includes the contribution of materials and funds
from Martin Scorsese, among others.
The festival screened the preserved 35 millimeter film prints
for a new generation, as well as keeping in touch with the talent
who made them.
On Aug. 23, the late Kramer’s widow, Karen, was there for
a viewing of Kramer’s 1949 production,
“Champion,” which made Kirk Douglas a star and
influenced films such as “Raging Bull.”
Film legend (and father of Michael) Douglas later arrived to a
standing ovation and said, “I should come here more often …
I don’t usually watch my own films … but I want to see how
I looked 52 years ago.”
It is fitting that Kramer, with “Champion,”
established himself as one of the first formidable independent
filmmakers. This year’s festival focused on independent
films, which often require more preservation work than big
Hollywood films. Independent filmmakers are often barely able to
finance their films let alone preserve them.
For this reason, films as recent as the 1987 film,
“Matewan,” need the efforts of people like film
preservationist Ross Lipman, who specializes in independent
cinema.
“After enough screenings those prints can get beat up and
scratched,” Lipman said. “There might be sections that
are lost, and all you’ve got is the original negative. But
where has it gone to? That’s where a lot of our work comes
in: trying to track down what exists on the film, and then
comparing those elements to find ones in the best condition and
piecing them all together.”
To preserve “Matewan,” Lipman contacted director
John Sayles and cinematographer Haskell Wexler to ensure the
film’s original vision. For example, Lipman noticed the
negatives were Fuji film and not the standard Kodak. After calling
Wexler, Lipman found that he wanted Fuji’s softer color
palette.
The struggle of independent cinema in preservation mirrors its
struggle in terms of the alternative points of view and politics it
often represents. During the screening of the pro-union film,
“Matewan,” many political activists showed up and later
used the post-screening discussion to vent their political views.
Without proper preservation, the loss of these types of independent
voices could be tantamount to a kind of de facto censorship.
“It’s generally the case that history gets rewritten
to fit contemporary thought,” Wexler said. “I think
this film represents a kind of history that you don’t usually
hear or know about.”
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is housed in several
locations, including Powell Library, Melnitz Hall, as well as an
office in Hollywood. Some contain climate-controlled storage
facilities (film requires a cool, dry environment) for the various
types of film, including acetate-based film which is stored at
UCLA’s Southern Regional Library Facility.
Kramer was the first to donate to the Archive in the 1970s,
prompting others such as Tony Curtis to donate their personal
collections. The archive’s films can be accessed through the
video library in Powell or through film festivals around the world,
such as those in Venice and London, which request the prints to be
shipped.
After over a hundred years of dominance, 35 mm film is under
serious threat of obsolescence from digital media as seen in the
recent “Star Wars” installment. Yet Lipman believes
that digital media will face even more preservation issues from
incompatible formats. New DVD technology may make old DVDs obsolete
and will have even less durability and longevity than their film
counterparts. Vivian Umino, however, a recent UCLA alumna from
UCLA’s graduate film program and attendee at the festival,
sees more to it than just preserving the past.
“Even though I grew up with digital recorders and VHS,
there’s something that a print has that to me will always be
special,” Umino said. “Prints are fragile, and
it’s in that fragility that often times you see the
beauty.”