NYWIFT Blog

By Ann Deborah Levy

The Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) is thrilled to take part in the 54th annual New York Film Festival (NYFF). Please join us at:

TALK: New Challenges in Film Preservation

Thursday, October 6^th at 8:00pm, FREE EVENT

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

The Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) of New York Women in Film & Television has helped to restore and preserve over 100 films in which women have had a key creative role. Among these is Harlan County, USA, being shown at the NYFF in the Revivals section. The result of this preservation project was a new 16mm print, which has been used for exhibition.

But what now? There are almost no16mm exhibition venues available today. However we know that film is the most stable of all available moving image media. How does this effect the preservationist. Should 16mm prints continue to be made?

NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund Committee will present a discussion on this and other new challenges in film preservation. Featured speakers include preservation experts Jack Rizzo (Metropolis Post), Katie Trainor (Film Collections Manager, MoMA)  Susan Lazarus (Producer/Post Production Supervisor, Paterson, WFPF member), and Ann Deborah Levy (Filmmaker/Co-Chair, WFPF). Moderated by Marian Masone (Film Festival Programmer/Media Strategist).

Co-presented by NYWIFT and the 54th New York Film Festival.

See speaker bios and further details on the NYWIFT website.

SCREENING: Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, USA

Friday, October 7^TH at 6:00 PM, tickets $15.00

Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St, north side, upper level

The restoration of Harlan County, USA was funded by New York Women in Film & Television in 2004 through a Women’s Film Preservation Fund Legacy Grant and underwritten by the Academy Film Archive.

The mighty Barbara Kopple’s 1976 film, an impassioned documentary record of the year-long Brookside, Kentucky, miners’ strike that came to be known as “Bloody Harlan,” celebrates its 40th anniversary with a return to the festival where it had its premiere—before going on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. Kopple and her crew spent a year and half in Harlan County, often under volatile conditions—she would later learn that there had been a price on her head. “It was an astounding experience,” she has said. “I learned what life-and-death was all about.” She also made a great film. A Cabin Creek Films release.

Barbara Kopple will be in attendance for a Q & A.

Buy tickets!

For more information on the WFPF, please visit our page on the NYWIFT website and follow us on Facebook.

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