Film programmer Amos Vogel's extensive Cinema 16 film collection, originally sold to Barney Rosset and Grove Press circa 1966–1967, served as the founding collection for the Harvard Film Archive.[2]
The archive's first curator was Vlada K. Petric, who expanded the collection and established the year-round regular screenings. He retired in 1995 and in 1999 Bruce Jenkins assumed the post.
In January 2005, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean William C. Kirby announced that the archive would be absorbed by the Harvard College Library and managed by the Library of Fine Arts. This caused some concern within the Harvard community about the future of the archive and its programming. Jenkins resigned soon after the announcement.[3]
In September 2006 film scholar Haden Guest became the new director of the archive. He addressed worries that the archives' absorption in the Library would affect its public film screenings.[4]
Collection
The collection spans the history of film-making from the silent film era to today, and includes Hollywood films, documentaries, animation, short films, B-movies and feature films from all over the world. It is the largest collection of 35mm film in New England.
The collection grows by an average of 15 to 20 films a year and contains some rarities, such as some of the only prints in the United States of several films by Serbian director Dusan Makavejev.
It also features a large collection of German cinema and the Bavarian Film Fund donates prints of any films that it finances.[5] After the death of Karen Aqua, the archive was given more than 300 of her works, both completed and unfinished.[6]
Film conservation
The Archive's mission includes to conserve, restore, and exhibit the collection's prints. It prioritizes film-to-film preservation for archival stability, authenticity, and aesthetics.[7] It may also perform film-to-digital transfers.[citation needed]