By Ann Deborah Levy
The Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) is excited to be collaborating with the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) to present two newly preserved programs from the pioneering PBS TV series Visions, produced by Barbara Schultz. The programs will screen in MOMI’s on-going Changing the Picture series
Date: Saturday, September 24th, 2016
Times: 2 PM (The Tapestry and Circles) & 4:30 PM (The Gold Watch)
Location: Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), Celeste and Armand Bartos Screening Room, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, NY
The Visions series, airing from 1976 to 1980, presented 40 programs that brought together playwrights and directors addressing controversial topics in American culture rarely explored on television at that time that gave voice to conflicting opinions and diverse groups within our society.
Circles
The Tapestry and Circles, two short dramas both directed by Maya Angelou and scripted by Alexis De Veaux, are set in the 1970’s and focus on young African-American women attempting to forge their own independent paths, despite the constraints and prejudices of their families and the society in which they have grown up. SCREENING at 2:00 PM
The Gold Watch, written by Momoko Iko, tells the story of Japanese immigrants in a West Coast farming community as they cope with racism and internment in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Depicting a chapter of the American past that has been sadly neglected, the movie has special resonance today in light of our continuing national conversation on immigration and racism. SCREENING at 4:30 PM
These screenings are especially meaningful to me because they are the culmination of several years of research on television movies. Most of the films that the WFPF preserves are chosen from grant applicants by our Selection Committee. However, the Visions films were preserved from funds from Nancy Malone, actress, producer, and director, specifically for made-for-television movies, a genre rarely submitted.
The Gold Watch
I began by looking into broadcast narrative features and documentaries with woman in significant creative positions behind the camera. It made sense to seek out films already in archives that needed preservation since we require each preserved film to be housed in one, stored under optimum conditions and available for study and viewing. I consulted curators and archivists and searched catalogs of institutions that had television collections, but wasn’t finding many titles shot on film, our preferred preservation format. I tracked down directors and producers of promising films who appeared to have retained the copyright and film elements. Many filmmakers don’t have extra funds for preservation or time to find an archive; our efforts would be a huge service. Even so, more than once, I located the producer of a film to find it had just been sold to a distributor who couldn’t make the elements available for preservation.
My progress reports to our Steering Committee on one film began to sound like a serial suspense novel. Each time I located the person I thought was key to finding the elusive negative, I was sent to someone else. One executive producer was unable to help me find the negative. The upshot of a lengthy correspondence with the other turned up only a VHS copy—in his barn.
We concluded that our choices for TV movies were limited if we insisted on working from film. Since television films were broadcast from tape and not intended for the big screen, we decided to preserve from broadcast tape. The producer and preservationist Sandra Schulberg had just joined our committee and mentioned the PBS Visions series. I was intrigued by the wealth of issues in America that the series addressed, as wide ranging as the backgrounds of the creative women involved. The executive producer was Barbara Schultz. That name rang a bell.
The Tapestry
Early on in my pursuit, Mark Quigley at UCLA Film & Television Archive had mentioned 2” broadcast tapes of programs Schultz had produced that needed preservation. Sure enough, thirteen from the Visions series were at UCLA, on deposit from KCET, the PBS station that produced them. I was especially eager to preserve The Gold Watch, because of its rarely discussed subject. Since our budget permitted us to preserve additional programs, we added those with women directors and/or screenwriters including the Maya Angelou / Alexis De Veaux program The Tapestry and Circles.
The 2” was unwatchable on any current equipment but preservation would change that. After completion, the results were on their way back to the UCLA Film & Television Archive. I gave television archivist Dan Einstein the good news. “I can’t wait to finally watch them!” he replied.
That’s why we preserve.
Please join us for the screenings. I will be introducing the films along with Barbara Schultz, Executive Producer, and Sandra Schulberg, Story Editor.
Tickets are on sale here on the Museum of the Moving Image website.
Prices: $12.00 regular admission, $9.00 seniors (65 +) and students (18 +) with valid i.d.
For more information on the WFPF, please visit us on the NYWIFT site.
Follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheWFPF.
Ann Deborah Levy is Co-Chair of the Women’s Film Preservation Fund Steering Committee and makes experimental films. For more information on her films and videos, please visit: www.resonantimages.com
womens film preservation fund
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Samantha Herrera
Welcome to NYWIFT, Samantha Herrera! Samantha Herrera is a queer Filipina artist born and raised in Queens, NY. Her roots began in theatre with training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, The Neighborhood Playhouse, and LAMDA. Saint Vegas is the first narrative film she has directed, written, and produced. It will internationally premiere in the Philippines hosted by Cine Balikbayan. This November, she played one of the lead roles in Diwata, directed by Shea Formanes. Aside from filmmaking, Samantha works at her alma mater - The Neighborhood Playhouse - and runs a Filipino food pop-up business with her partner. In our interview, Samantha discussed the mentors who shaped her artistry, her inspirations, and her upcoming work.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Joyce Hills
Welcome to NYWIFT, Joyce Hills! Joyce Hills is a recent graduate of NYU Tisch, where she co-wrote and directed the culturally-rich epic Viking short film The Feather, featuring out-of-this-world SFX hair and makeup, practical stunts, and generative workflows on a virtual production volume. She was the First Assistant Director and VFX Supervisor on the Seed & Spark-awarded short film Night of Melancholia, interned in Virtual Production at Gum Studios in Brooklyn, and performed as Sugarsop, The Widow, and assorted household servants in Will Kempe’s Players’ The Taming of the Shrew. Joyce is developing her first feature film, a dark fantasy inspired by mystical quests, heroes’ journeys, and time and destiny in popular culture. She is also developing a science fiction feminist short, and is pursuing additional education in XR mediamaking and STEM. In our interview, she discussed her childhood inspirations, emerging technologies, and the future of storytelling.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kelcey Edwards
NYWIFT Member Kelcey Edwards found her way into documentary filmmaking through Iron Gate Studios, a nonprofit gallery and artist workspace she cofounded in her early twenties in Austin, Texas. At the time, she was making small narrative films alongside many other Austin-based filmmakers involved in the “mumblecore” scene; her first film, Letter, screened at SXSW in 2006. Since cameras and equipment were always present in the gallery, she began interviewing many of the artists who visited the space. Over time, the habit of recording conversations and documenting artists’ lives became a steady part of her practice. That interest eventually led her to pursue an MFA in Documentary Film at Stanford and later to move to New York, where she continued developing their work. About a decade later, she directed The Art of Making It, a feature documentary about the art world, which won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2022. It’s currently available on most streaming platforms. Kelcey’s films have received support from the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance, and Tribeca Film Institute, among others, have been broadcast internationally, and have screened at top-tier festivals including SXSW, Berlinale, and Hamptons International. In our interview, Kelcey discussed her teaching philosophy, approach to filmmaking, and upcoming projects.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Therese Cayaba-Jones
Welcome, Therese Cayaba-Jones, to NYWIFT. Therese is a filmmaker with over 15 years of experience with films, documentaries, and series across the Philippines, Singapore, and the U.S. She just finished the feature screenplay for UnMarry, which was recently announced as one of the entries for the Metro Manila Film Festival 2025. Currently, Therese is producing the film Tales My Father Told, and raising money through NYWIFT fiscal sponsorship. Read on to see Therese’s story of moving to New York, her role in the 48 Hour Film Project, and her take on the state of independent filmmaking in the Big Apple.
READ MORE
2 Comments
Keone Young
I appeared in The Gold Watch. Shizuko Hoshi the actress who starred alongside her Husband Mako is still with us in Southern California. Her performance was electrifying.