66 Films to be Saved by the 2024 NFPF Grants
The National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to announce the winners of its 2024 federally funded grants. 32 institutions—six of which are new to our grant programs—will use these awards to preserve 66 films. Though some have been previously digitized, our grants will ensure their full preservation on film, which under archival storage conditions remains a more reliable and stable medium than digital video.
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Varnette's World (1979), directed by Carol Parrott Blue and featuring the art of Varnette Honeywood, will be preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture with NFPF support.
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A prominent group of films focuses on the work of African American artists. Elijah Pierce: Woodcarver (1974) profiles the renowned self-taught folk artist, recipient of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship, and will be preserved by Ohio State University. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will preserve Varnette’s World: A Study of a Young Artist (1979), an exploration of the life and work of painter Varnette Honeywood, directed by L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Carroll Parrott Blue. Two films by independent filmmaker Bily Jackson will be preserved by Pittsburgh Sound + Image: Didn't We Ramble On (1989) traces the lineage of traditional African drumming back to African American marching bands and features narration by Dizzy Gillespie, while We Are Universal (1971) explores arts and culture inspired by the “Black is Beautiful” movement and features interviews with notables such as Quincy Jones.
An equally rich range of documentaries will be saved for posterity. Colliding Worlds (1980), by Orie Medicinebull, shows how four generations of women from her family maintain the cultural traditions of the Mono people of central California. It will be preserved by the Madera County Library. New York Public Library will handle the preservation of two titles: Simpson Street (1977) by William Sarokin depicts the deterioration of a once promising neighborhood in the South Bronx and includes an appearance by MC Grandmaster Flash, while Muzak (ca.1972), by Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz, takes a deadpan look at the infamous background music company. New York University will preserve Letters Not About Love (1998), an experimental documentary by Jaquline Ochs about the exchange of letters between American and Ukrainian poets Lyn Hejinian and Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. Phil Ochs and the Swedish Ambassador to Chile (1974), a dialogue between the singer/songwriter and diplomat Harald Edelstam on conditions in Chile following the 1973 coup d’état, will be preserved by American Song Archives.
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Calumet Park (1939) is one of five works by amateur filmmaker Nicholas Viernes that will be preserved by the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago with NFPF support.
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Educational and sponsored films are also well represented this year. It Happened in the Kitchen (1941), an industrial film sponsored by the Modern Kitchen Bureau and produced by Cinecraft Productions to promote the “modern electric kitchen,” will be preserved by the Hagley Museum and Library. The University of California Santa Barbara will preserve the Dalip Singh Saund Collection (ca.1956–62), a set of constituent reports and campaign films from the first Indian American and first person of Asian descent elected to the US Congress. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives will handle the preservation of nine educational films from Karen Loveland, one of the most prolific American women filmmakers of the 20th century, including Mirror of Kings: Tales from Kalila Wa Dimma (1982), an adaptation of an ancient Middle Eastern book of fables, narrated by Omar Sharif. From Yale Film Archives come two instructional films by Sheldon Renan, founder of the Pacific Film Archive: Basic Film Terms: A Visual Dictionary (1970) and its follow-up Basic Television Terms: A Video Dictionary (1977), featuring Leonard Nimoy.
Several of the 2024 grant-winners date back to the silent era. The University of South Carolina will preserve a collection of newsreel outtakes documenting the personal and professional activities of William Fox, elusive founder of the Fox Film Corporation. George Eastman Museum will preserve One Clear Call (1922), a melodrama directed by John Stahl, who went on to make classics such as Imitation of Life (1934) and Leave Her to Heaven (1945).
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Phil Ochs and the Swedish Ambassador to Chile (1974) will be preserved by American Song Archives.
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Also slated for preservation are: two social welfare films from Blackside Inc., The Unemployment Test (1978) and Easy Street (1979); footage of abstract expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler at the National Gallery; avant-garde films by Beryl Sokoloff and Aarin Burch; a collection of amateur films by Nicholas Viernes documenting Filipino American life in 1930s Chicago; home movies of a Marine Corps radio operator in 1930s China; and a collection of short amateur films to be preserved by Chicago Film Archives, including Back Alley Rip-Off (1970), a narrative following two men trying to protect their lottery winnings, made by artist Don McIlvaine, and Games for Married Men (1977), dark comedy produced by the amateur filmmaking group Central Cinematographers. For a full list of films, click here.
Since its creation by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has provided preservation support to 343 institutions across the country and saved 2,831 films through grants and collaborative projects. The grants are made possible by funds authorized through The Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2016, secured through the leadership of the Library of Congress, and the contributions of public-spirited donors.
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Anyone can learn how to direct after watching Basic Film terms: A Visual Dictionary (1970), to be preserved by the Yale Film Archive through an NFPF grant.
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The NFPF preservation grants target newsreels, silent-era films, culturally important home movies, avant-garde films, and endangered independent productions that fall under the radar of commercial preservation programs. The awards provide support to create a film preservation master and two access copies of each work. Films saved through the NFPF programs are used in education and seen widely through screenings, exhibits, and streaming. A curated selection of preserved films is available for viewing on the NFPF website, and more than 320 additional titles have been made accessible by our grant recipients.