AMIA 2024 | Program

Preliminary program sessions are listed below. Session descriptions may change and additional programs added to the schedule.

Navigating AI Integration in Audiovisual Archives: Practice & Policy
Johan Oomen, Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision

This presentation explores research on integrating AI in various organisational contexts, with a focus on audiovisual archiving. AI’s potential is evident in search & exploration, preservation, artistic expression, and big-data analysis. Policies like the AI Act and Ethical Guidelines for Trustworthy AI shape strategies for responsible AI use. However, integrating AI in audiovisual domains poses challenges, such as choosing between off-the-shelf and bespoke solutions, aligning AI with legacy systems, considering public values in procurement, ensuring scalability and long-term viability, and fostering AI literacy. The audiovisual domain’s specificity necessitates developing good practices. The AI4Media Network of Excellence engaged media practitioners to capture their experiences. This presentation shares these insights, offering practical guidance on sustainable, responsible AI integration into workflows and formulating policies for AI technology selection and use.

Preparing, Identifying, and Responding to the Archival Impacts Climate Change
Edward Benoit III, Louisiana State University, School of Information Studies
Jill Trepanier, Louisiana State University, Geography and Anthropology
Jennifer Vanos, Arizona State University, School of Sustainability
Emily Fisher, Louisiana State University, Geography and Anthropology
Krista Hollis, LEED Green Associate

More than before, archives must assess their unique climate change-related threats to their collections and missions as part of their overall disaster and emergency management plans. This forum will discuss the different climate change threats impacting archives, the IMLS-funded PROTECCT-GLAM national categorical risk assessment scale utilizing a GIS analysis of climate models, and best practices for sustainability and greening the archives. The forum will conclude with an open discussion of climate change action priorities for the archival community.

DAR to be Different: Demystifying Aspect Ratio and Forming a Community Consensus
Morgan Oscar Morel, Library of Congress
Dave Rice, CUNY TV

Out of the many technical details encountered in the preservation of analog video materials, the nuances of aspect ratio are among the most confusing. Available explanations of terms like Display Aspect Ratio, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Storage Aspect Ratio often confuse more than they elucidate. This presentation will attempt to clearly and succinctly explain and simplify these concepts, and discuss their impact for AV preservation and archiving. Additionally, the session will include the opportunity for a community discussion meant to work towards a consensus of how our field will handle the incongruencies surrounding this topic.

Saving the Unsalvageable: An Inusual Preservation Approach
Dino Everett, USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive
Isabella Scaffidi, American Cinematheque

This panel looks at an unusual and novel technique for saving the most damaged and brittle film reels This is not for making fancy looking marquee restorations so much as for last ditch efforts of saving footage that is so historically important that any evidence remains valuable, even it is visually flawed.

Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology
Sydney Perkins, myself

The domain of digital audiovisual preservation has been largely confined to grandfathered production technology. While signal processing has continued to improve in adjacent disciplines, we lag behind and stubbornly soldier onward using old technology and techniques. I’m proposing a workflow for visual restoration on image scans of optical tracks as a superior alternative to conventional sound readers and audio software. I’ll show how this workflow enables results of higher fidelity, and I’ll go in to detail about its archival and ethical merits. The process only uses image scans of optical tracks along with free and low cost software with a wide user base; therefore, I consider it “lateral thinking with withered technology,” in the words of game designer Gunpei Yokoi, whose 16mm FMV games will be the first subject of the case study portion. We defy you to guess the second subject, and heartily ask you to divulge it afterward.

Got Nitrate? Adventures Building a Nitrate Vault in 2024
Doug Sylvester, PRO-TEK Vaults
Tim Knapp, PRO-TEK Vaults

Nitrate film vaults are constructed very infrequently and taking on this challenge in 2024 is not for the faint of heart. The handling and storage of nitrate film requires exceptional levels of expertise, care, training, and safety precautions. Building a new nitrate film vault is, therefore, a complex endeavor.    PRO-TEK Vaults is one of the few certified providers of nitrate film restoration and preservation services in the U.S. and the team regularly provides guidance and services to presidential libraries, universities, museums, news organizations, corporations, and motion picture studios.    Over the last few years, industry colleagues discussed their desire for additional nitrate film storage in the greater Los Angeles area.

Artists and Archives: A Model for Community Engaged Archives at Visual Studies Workshop
Almudena Escobar Lopez, Toronto Metropolitan University
Tara Merenda Nelson, Visual Studies Workshop

How do collaborations between artists, community members and archives push forward archival methodologies and practices? This session will present strategies of curatorial and artistic modes of collaboration within the archive, using Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) as a case study. Artist/filmmaker and curator Tara Merenda Nelson and curator, scholar, and archivist, Almudena Escobar López will co-present on the central role of the archives within VSW’s public programming initiatives. Merenda Nelson will present on VSW’s Community Curator Program and the seasonal Salon series that directly connect members of the community with VSW archives, as well as the media transfer laboratory. Escobar López will discuss VSW’s artistic residencies and their use of archives as an example of archival intervention and inquiry.

Establishing a Community Digitization Program for AV Materials
Callie Holmes, UGA Walter J. Brown Media Archives
Thomas May, UGA Walter J. Brown Media Archives

In April of 2024, UGA’s Walter J. Brown Media Archives held our first “Free the Tapes” community digitization event, where we invited members of the public to drop off up to 5 audiovisual items to be digitized by BMA staff, free of charge, with no donation to the archives required. The program culminated with a Home Movie Day style screening of clips that were digitized as part of Free the Tapes. We will discuss logistics, including working with our UGA Libraries colleagues who specialize in public programming and community outreach, and how we advocated within our organization to get the event approved (including by UGA’s legal counsel). We will also discuss how we adapted when we received about 5x as many items as we had anticipated and how we used Airtable to track digitization and manage all patron communication.  We will go in depth into “lessons learned,” including how we adapted our program for our Fall 2024 Free the Tapes event. Ultimately, our Free the Tapes event was a success, both in terms of public feedback and internally with staff, and this program will be valuable to anyone considering something similar in their community.

Digitizing, Documenting, and Working with All Your Dance Stuff
Jenai Cutcher, New York Public Library
Stephanie Neel, Mark Morris Dance Group

Archival materials are increasingly being perceived for what they are: tools for inclusion, education, accessibility, and social justice. However, collecting and maintaining archives falls outside the current capacity of most performing arts organizations and individuals. Available means for documenting performance are degrading and in danger of being lost. Most performing artists are concerned with providing access to their works for future generations, but the migration process and both using and maintaining digitization equipment is complex and not financially sustainable.    Currently, individuals and small- to mid-sized companies have no option but to address these problems independently. Dance documentarians Jenai Cutcher and Stephanie Neel are forming the Creative Archives Group to centralize and consolidate resources, technologies, and services through a community-based digital archiving hub. This hub will bridge connections between AV archivists and performing arts groups to create high-quality materials and empower artists to actively create, maintain, and engage with their archives.

Diaspora Identities in Archival Home Movie Practice
Agata Zborowska, University of Chicago/KU Leuven

This presentation looks at vernacular moving image practices and related oral histories as sources for studying the transformation of the diaspora’s identity through a case study of the Not-So-Ordinary project on home movies and Polish Chicago. The research project is conducted by Agata Zborowska (University of Chicago/KU Leuven) in partnership with Chicago Film Archives.    In the presentation, I will discuss the preliminary results of the project that aims to contextualize films and videos through oral histories and explore the media’s potential to evoke memories and narrativize one’s experience. The presented case study is an example of how to analyze not only the movies’ content and aesthetics but also the practices related to their creation, viewing, sharing, and their role in the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

Arkansas Voices: The Oral History Recordings of Dr. Johnye Strickland
Amanda McQueen, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture

In 1973, Dr. Johnye Strickland founded the Oral History Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. During her 52-year tenure at UALR, she and her students recorded hundreds of hours of interviews on open reel tapes, audio cassettes, and microcassettes. Thanks to a grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture has digitized these recordings, making the stories they contain accessible again. This presentation will introduce the Johnye Strickland Collection, describe the grant project, and highlight some unique oral histories, including interviews with Vietnamese refugees, conversations with women in Arkansas politics, folk histories of Petit Jean Mountain, and discussions of craft with Arkansas poets. Strickland’s recordings feature an array of Arkansan voices – from those newly arrived to those long established – and the stories they tell enrich our understanding of this often-overlooked state’s cultural and political history.

AV Processing Strategies: The Holder and de Lavallade Papers
Anicka Austin, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

The Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade papers at Emory University’s Rose Library is a 307 linear feet collection showcasing the artistic legacies of two Black pioneers in dance, choreography, visual arts, and theater. Media material in the collection covers a significant array of performances, rehearsals, and artistic research that spans across VHS tapes, film reels, CDs, and Betacam tapes totaling 1957 items across 46 boxes. This presentation will discuss strategies, lessons learned, and successes in managing this media-rich collection amid COVID-19 challenges, detailing AV inventory creation and effective arrangement and description strategies. It will also discuss the ways Rose Library’s leadership and existing policies and procedures supported the process and how this collection highlighted areas of improvement in our documentation practices. Attendees will gain insights into managing large-scale AV projects and promoting inclusive archival practices, both vital for preserving the cultural heritage of performing artists.

Exploring 3D Printing for VCR and VTR Repair
Anthony Gonzalez, Independent

A decade into the magnetic media crisis, video’s obsolescence means that playback equipment is getting harder to maintain, making digital reformatting efforts more difficult. Expert knowledge of how to repair and maintain VCRs and VTRs is becoming rarer, and the supply of original parts is decreasing. Without access to industrial manufacturing processes, new parts can’t be made. Or can they? This presentation will explore 3D printing’s current and potential applications for repairing VCRs and VTRs and give an overview of the technologies and software involved in workflows for 3D Printing for Repair (3DPfR). The presenter will also discuss their own experiences with a 3DPfR project for a Sony SLV-740HF consumer VHS player, including their successes, failures and areas for future research. This presentation will cover how 3D printing can be used to repair legacy video equipment and the work that still needs to be done to reach this goal.

DIY Video Lab : Crowdsourcing, Escaping Perfectionism, and Embracing Apprenticeship Models
Ari Negovschi Regalado, Texas Archive of the Moving Image

In this session, TAMI seeks to provide archivists with insight into how to implement a lab build-out at a fraction of the cost. In 2023, the organization was able to complete a digitization lab build-out for $4,700 by using tactics such as crowdsourcing donations through a successful “Equipment Round-Up” campaign on social media, purchasing consumer-grade equipment, and gleaning second-hand sales. In the spirit of knowledge-sharing, our presentation offers a down-to-earth approach that will reveal “imperfections” in our workflow and destigmatize affordable solutions to solve costly problems.     We’ll also cover the merits of an apprenticeship model, which has become integral to the lab’s daily operations. By de-centering the emphasis on advanced degrees to work in the moving image archiving field, we have increased our capacity while simultaneously breaking down barriers to entering this elusive field by encouraging those with no formal archival training or degrees to join Team TAMI.

Serious Business: 1970s Feminist Film Distribution; A Site for Archival Knowledge
Amy Reid, University of California, Santa Cruz

“Serious Business: 1970s Feminist Film Distribution; A Site for Archival Knowledge ” presents the diasporic journey of a now non-existent distribution company’s collection of films. Working with catalogs, ephemera, letter correspondences, oral history work, and home archives from Freude’s son, this presentation shows ways to build an alternative understanding of experimental and feminist film culture in the long 1970s when films were no longer accessible.

A Nonprofit Archive Primer: Show and Tell with Deserted Films
Devin Orgeron, Deserted Films
Melissa Dollman, Deserted Films

DIY Palm Springs home movie archive Deserted Films will lead an informal chat (the telling part). From the challenges of starting a 501c3, to fundraising, awareness raising, event and website curation, physical storage, file storage, etc. Deserted Films hopes to demystify the process for the uninitiated (it’s not always pretty and it’s not always what you learned in school!).  The “showing” part is where it gets fun. Melissa and Devin have pulled some gems from their collections. Marvel to shots of the magnificent Palm Springs aerial tramway; enjoy Palm Canyon from the 40s through the 80s; take a dip in the pool; relish the beauty of architectural treasures; say hello to the stars and party with the locals. Our goal is share what’s unique about Palm Springs while also inspiring folks to consider how a small, regional archive might fit into the landscape of their own region.

Exploring Experimental Machine Learning in Film Restoration
Fabio Bedoya, Filmworkz

In this session, we will explore the cutting-edge applications of machine learning in film restoration, addressing not only color recovery and frame replacement but also the intricate processes of colorization, source/gauge matching, and nitrate decay recovery. A series of detailed case studies demonstrate how AI tools are revolutionizing the field, making advanced restoration techniques more accessible.  Drawing from a rich background in digital intermediates and a history of international collaboration, attendees will be guided through the ethical and practical considerations of integrating AI into film preservation workflows. The session is designed for those with an intermediate understanding of the field, but beginners will also find the discussions enlightening and informative.  Participants will leave with a deeper appreciation of the capabilities of machine learning in film restoration.

Talk About Talkies
George Blood, George Blood Audio/Video/Film/Data

In the moving image preservation community there’s a lot of concern about and discussion of image quality, resolution, and formats. What about the sound?  As film scanners have improved over time, they have added features and functionality. A decade ago sound film was scanned in two passes – once on a telecine to capture the picture, then again on a sound reproducer – which then required assembling the two elements together in an editing program. Now most film scanners will scan both sound and picture in one pass. Is this a good thing? Have we compromised performance for this convenience and labor/cost savings? Recently George Blood Audio/Video/Film/Data was in the market for a new film scanner. At last year’s AMIA we presented on the factors impacting image capture, and showed the results from different models. This year we present our findings on the sound reproduction, both mag and optical, of three high end film scanners.

The Preservation of Digital Live Performance Art
Jenny Hsu

This research project focuses on the preservation of Digital Live Performance Art (DLPA). Technological advancements have significantly transformed the performance landscape, enabling artists to engage with digital technology in real time during live shows. The origins of tech-centered audiovisual performances can be traced back to dance, theatre, expanded cinema, audio and video synthesis, and live programming.  With the advent of new equipment, software, platforms, projection techniques, various coding environments, and visual programming languages, DLPA has developed into a unique form of artistic expression, no longer merely a supplementary component of musical or theatrical performances. DLPA blends performance art with digital (and analog) technology and human-computer interaction.  This research explores two categories: live-coding and mixed-media performances through the lens of museum conservation. By identifying conservation challenges such as documentation, technology obsolescence, and performance delegation, the research aims to develop a documentation resource to aid individual artists and institutions in preserving DLPA.

The Future of LTO Technology in Digital Preservation
Linda Tadic, Digital Bedrock
Larry Blake, Swelltone

LTO data tape is used by archives as a stable solution for backing up digital files. The current generation, LTO-9, has also introduced some challenges when there are differences in the physical environment of the writing location vs. that of the reading location.    One of the noted features of the format since LTO-5, the LTFS open file system used for writing data to LTO tape, will no longer be supported by IBM past version 2.4.5 on PCs running Windows 10 or 11.   Additionally, there is a trend by LTO tape library and software manufacturers to ignore LTFS and incorporate object storage technologies into LTO tape libraries, resulting in data on tape being locked into proprietary systems.    This session will explain the implications of these changes in the LTO format as related to digital preservation, to help guide attendees’ future use of LTO data storage in their digital preservation planning.

Cinema Slides: The Greatest Images Never Seen
Robert Byrne, San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Projected glass “lantern” slides were part of the cinema-going experience from the very beginning. Slides were used for advertising products, instructing, informing (or scolding) audiences, and spectacularly advertising the delights of upcoming shows. Not only visually stunning, these slides provide unique insight into audience behavior and expectations, as well as advertising and promotional strategies.    Many archives and museums hold cinema slides that have been passively collected, but that generally reside on the fringes of the institution’s collection. In his richly illustrated presentation, Rob discusses the history of glass projection slides within the cinema, placing them in both a historic and aesthetic context, as well as the archival challenges and opportunities presented by these fragile objects that many institutions hold in their collections.  The presentation will include the opportunity to view and handle original slide artifacts and coincides with the launch of the online Cinema Slide Archive.

From Busby Berkeley to Frank Zappa: the Treasure Trove of Philip Jenkinson
Rosie Rowan Taylor, British Film Institute

Private film collectors now arguably represent the last frontier of film preservation. Many key film titles still missing or even yet to be discovered, may well be hiding in private hands. The private film collection of British broadcaster and journalist Philip Jenkinson is testament to this. He was embedded in, and well known throughout the British film collecting community, which included Kevin Brownlow (film historian), and Ronald Grant (founder of the London Cinema Museum), and with Key American connections such as David Bradley (American writer, actor, director, and university instructor). He edited early films for some of Britain’s most important filmmakers, including Ken Russell, one or two of which made it into his collection.  Rosie Taylor has worked with this complex and fascinating collection, now preserved in the BFI National Archive, finding important connections and hidden gems, and discovering the important role private collectors play in film preservation.

Preserving Community Memory in the Balkans Project Report
Siobhan Hagan, Smithsonian
Kelli Hix, BAVC Media

In this presentation, archivists will report on the AMIA fiscally sponsored project, Preserving Community Memory in the Balkans. The project is a collaboration between archivists, artists, and cultural workers in Serbia and the United States to develop preservation initiatives and foster regional preservation networks. The region is rich in culture and history, yet there is little infrastructure or funding to collect or preserve the abandoned and community-held archival collections that exist in former factories, homes, and private collections. To address this challenge, independent, volunteer-led organizations are taking the lead. The speakers will discuss the work of SKVER, a regional archive in eastern Serbia; the evolution of Timok Digital, SKVER’s regional annual education and training workshop; the development of Serbia’s first Memory Lab; the Serbian translation of the Community Archiving Workshop’s “La Lotería Audiovisual”; and the work of Rainbow Ignite, an organization collecting and safeguarding documentation of LGBTQ+ history in Serbia.

Peliculas Caseras: Fostering Archival Autonomy and Empowerment Among Latine Communities
Yesenia Perez, UCLA Film & Television Archive
Marísa Hicks-Alcaraz, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

This session will identify how affect theory and a relational paradigm can be implemented through an intersectional lens as an epistemological framework to engage Latine communities in Southern California and the Midwest with moving image archiving. Examining current outreach efforts, we will explore various methods through which relationality can be centered within preservation work and programming, particularly through two projects centering peliculas caseras: the Home Movie Remezcla project and Home Movie Day Events. Ultimately, we will propose approaches to outreach that not only engender collective memory, but facilitate direct actions leading to the redistribution of power and resources to Latine communities who will subsequently be able to lead preservation projects without institutional intervention.

Essential Yet Challenged: Decentralized Model of Film Preservation in China
Yizhou Wei, Film Archive Studies Center, Xiamen University

Unlike in the United States, China’s film preservation efforts have long exhibited a centralized model. As a continuation of cultural control from the planned economy era, film preservation in China has been monopolized by a single institution, with minimal involvement from the private sector and academia. However, with the dissolution of the planned economy, the advancement of digital technology, the rise of private film collections, and the influence of educational film archive concepts from Taiwan, new forces are gradually emerging that may challenge this centralized model. This presentation aims to review and analyze the current state of film preservation in China, outlining the unique value and significance of a decentralized model in the contemporary Chinese context.

No Reel Left Unturned – A Case Study of 150,000 Reels
Mark Smirnoff, Prasad Corp
Geetha Sanumathy, Prasad Corp

The National Film Archive of India (NFIA), the largest archive in India, is in the midst of a project to preserve almost 150,000 reels of film in its collection and to physically restore almost 60,000 of those reels. This case study looks at the workflows and processes, as well as new management structures created. The project is ongoing, with lessons still to be learned.

Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
Ashley Dequilla, Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
Rebecca Hall, Chicago Film Society
Camille Townson, South Side Home Movie Project
Moriah Ulinskas

The Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago: Autonomous Archiving is an invitation to experience the historical documentary-style 16mm home movies created by union pipefitter Nicholas Viernes (1902-199) and learn about the work done to conserve these films. As part ofIn this session, we will present  three of the earliest films from among the 300 home movies in the FAHSC collection: “Little Farmers of Reynoldsburg” parts 1 and 2 (1936 and 1937), which highlights portrait shots of an interracial family and their farm animals in rural Ohio; and “All-Stars” (1939), featuring an interstate Filipino migrant baseball tournament at Grant Park near the Field Museum of Natural History. The families and migrant communities showcased in these home movies document bold moments of joy and prosperity within a rapidly diversifying social landscape of the early 20th Century. Presented by Ashley Dequilla, FASHC archivist and collection manager, and Rebecca Hall, Chicago Film Society co-founder and projectionist.

Supporting Federal AV Accessibility: New FADGI Guidelines and Software Updates
Charlie Hosale, Library of Congress – American Folklife Center
Chris Lacinak, AVP
Bertram Lyons, Medex
Dave Rice, CUNY

Since 2021 the Federal Agency Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Audio-Visual Working Group has maintained an active Accessibility Subgroup focused on documenting accessibility guidelines and processes for cultural heritage institutions and supporting accessibility features in AV archives tools. At this session FADGI and project partners will present lightning talks on the subgroup’s initiatives and related work. Improvements and feature enhancements to embARC, vrecord, BWF MetaEdit, and ffmpeg will be discussed, as will four recent FADGI publications: Definitions for Key Accessibility Features for Digital Audiovisual Collections Content, Software Accessibility for Open Source Digital Preservation Applications, Guidelines: Embedded Metadata in WebVTT Files, and The Current State of Accessibility Features for Audiovisual Collections Content in Five FADGI Institutions. The subgroup’s products assist archives and libraries to serve users who are blind, have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, prefer to read transcripts and subtitles, or prefer sign language.

YouTube Do’s and Don’ts: Create, Manage, Monetize, Share
Elizabeth A Hansen, Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Mitch Peyser, PressPlay2Entertain

Introducing Moving Image Archives into Media Production Library Sessions
Jason Evans Groth, North Carolina State University Libraries
Josh Thorud, University of Virginia

This workshop will explore the integration of archival media into media production and digital storytelling education. By leveraging archival footage, students can create compelling narratives that connect historical content with contemporary perspectives. The session will provide practical strategies and case studies from media literacy and production classes, highlighting how archival media can enhance learning and foster creativity. The two case studies will come from two university libraries working with Media Studies courses, with different archival content, leading to a broader discussion of best practices and strategies for incorporating and potentially exhibiting student projects using moving image archives. The session will include access to example assignment prompts and files for reuse in many educational contexts.

Homicide: Life on the Street – A Remaster Case Study
Jen O’Leary Hashida, NBCUniversal
Cassandra Moore, NBCUniversal
Chase Schulte, NBCUniversal
Casey Keltner, NBCUniversal StudioPost

Homicide: Life on the Street ran for 7 seasons between 1993 and 1999. Its all-star cast included breakout star Andre Braugher, and it garnered critical acclaim, including Peabody and Emmy Awards, and was listed as one of TIME magazine’s “Best TV Shows of All-TIME.”  The 4K Remastering process encountered a myriad of challenges including: locating picture and audio assets that had undergone multiple ownership transitions and questionable cataloging practices; using AI software to recreate the final edit from over 600 boxes of uncut negatives; and navigating music rights for streaming distribution, resulting in the replacement of many hours of music cues.  Members of NBCUniversal’s Mastering & Archive team and NBCUniversal StudioPost will discuss how they overcame these obstacles to get the series ready for streaming distribution.

Developing a National Network of Magnetic Media Preservation Training Sites
Kelli Hix, BAVC Media
C Diaz, ENTRE Film Center
Zachary Rutland, Skid Row History Museum and Archive
Henry Apodaca, Skid Row History Museum and Archive

In 2019, BAVC Media began a project to provide equipment and community-centered, peer-to-peer driven training in magnetic media preservation to Host Site Partner Organizations and their communities around the United States. Five years later, over 13 Host Sites in California, New York, Missouri, Oklahoma, Hawai’i, Texas, and Maryland have participated, and approximately 45 community members have been trained. The program (supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities) offers a model for preservation training that bridges gaps between cultural workers and technicians, and offers a pathway for rigorous training outside of academic programs, internships, and apprenticeships. In this panel, BAVC Media and representatives from Host Site Partner Organizations, ENTRE Film Center and Skid Row History Museum and Archive, share the challenges, outcomes, and lessons learned from five years of the program. We encourage a lively discussion of how other organizations and individuals approach technical training in preservation.

A Decade of Preservation: Al Larvick Fund’s Home Movie Collaborations
Kirsten Larvick, Al Larvick Fund
Brian Belak, Al Larvick Fund
Skip Elsheimer, A/V Geeks
Kelly Burton

The Al Larvick Conservation Fund granting organization celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024. The Fund provides support for digitization and conservation of American home movies and amateur media, with a unique approach that extends to collection individuals and families. The Fund administers two annual grants: a National Grant for recipients across the country and a Regional Grant for Upper Midwestern states. Its mission goes beyond providing digitization, ensuring that the materials are actively utilized and celebrated through detailed Airtable cataloging, screening programs, and oral histories. These activities ensure that the personal media are made accessible and well-curated for future generations. The panel session will feature contributions from board members, vendors, and grant recipients, showcasing the organization’s transformative impact and its role in revitalizing personal and community histories, while also addressing its limitations.

Navigating Rights and Usage: Best Practices for Accepting Donations
Lance Watsky, Filmic Technologies
Karen Cariani, WGBH Archives
Ruta Abolins, University of Georgia
Greg Cram, New York Public Library

This panel aims to guide archivists on the critical process of negotiating rights before accepting audiovisual donations. Our goal is to empower attendees with the necessary knowledge and tools to establish clear rights agreements and ensure ethical usage of donated materials, thus enhancing their collections’ value and accessibility. The panel will emphasize best practices for acquiring news and documentary collections, highlighting the importance of addressing rights at the point of acquisition.

A Collaborative Effort: Born Digital Video Preservation Strategies at LC
Morgan Oscar Morel, Library of Congress
Laura Drake Davis, Library of Congress
Charles Hosale, Library of Congress
Marcus A. Napier, Library of Congress

This session will discuss approaches taken by different areas at the Library of Congress for the receipt of, processing, and providing access to born-digital content. Opportunities for interacting with creators and donors, establishing suggested guidelines, developing new workflows, and the need for additional flexibilities will be discussed. Is the democratization of technology to create high-quality moving image content helping or hindering collecting efforts? How does the moving image archive profession navigate this format-rich environment to ensure long-term preservation? Speakers from the Library of Congress will highlight: processing considerations for moving image collections at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC); collaboration and workflows for providing limited access to commercially-available content; and the American Folklife Center’s (AFC) Fieldwork File Format Recommendations. Presentations will include impact of collaborations, variety of file formats received, lessons learned, and strategies moving forward

Archiving Film Culture: Collaborating to Increase Access and Outreach
Matt St. John, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Mary Huelsbeck, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Eric Hoyt, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Olivia Babler, Chicago Film Archives

With the project “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision,” the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is processing and sharing collections from individuals and institutions that helped push American film culture beyond the mainstream, across different regions and time periods. The project, funded by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant, includes four collections: Amos Vogel (Cinema 16 founder, New York Film Festival co-founder, Annenberg Center director of film), Chuck Kleinhans (Jump Cut co-founder/editor, Northwestern University professor, experimental filmmaker), Elfrieda Abbe (film critic, Angles: Women Working in Film and Video editor), and the Wisconsin Film Festival. Speakers from WCFTR and Chicago Film Archives will discuss collaborations between the two Midwestern archives and other film organizations that produced screenings, film scans, and digital exhibits for this project, increasing access to the rare avant-garde and independent films represented in these collections.

Walls of the Classroom Disappear: Early Educational Television 16mm Films
Matthew Wilcox, Michigan State University Libraries
Emily Vinson, University of Houston Libraries

This session examines the 16mm film collections of KUHT (Houston, TX, first aired May 25, 1953) and WKAR (East Lansing, MI, first aired January 15, 1954), two of the earliest public educational TV stations in the U.S. We will explore the historical context behind their establishment following the FCC’s freeze on new broadcast licenses, highlighting their mission to provide educational and cultural programming. The session reviews their diverse content, from academic subjects to cultural programming, showcasing innovative educational broadcasting approaches. We will also discuss the technical choices between filmed productions and kinescope recordings and their implications for preservation. Finally, we will share strategies for digitizing these collections, including securing funding and overcoming obstacles to ensure these historical materials are accessible to modern audiences.

Whisper AI Transcription, Human Implementation
Nina Rao, Emory University
Simon O’Riordan, Emory University
Owen King, GBH Archives
Emily Lynema, Indiana University

Since the 2022 debut of Whisper, OpenAI’s automatic speech recognition software, an ecosystem of complementary tools and modifications has evolved, now offering organizations stewarding AV materials unprecedented opportunities to leverage this tool to increase the accessibility and discoverability of their digital collections. In this session, panelists from Emory, GBH, and Indiana will discuss their experiences and research implementing Whisper into their media management and preservation workflows, discussing Whisper’s performance across varied AV collections as well as the human impacts of working with Whisper.  These insights from three organizations with varied scopes of collections and distinct but connected avenues of research may be helpful to a variety of organizations engaged in similar work or interested in starting up such a project. Attendees will gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of leveraging Whisper, the challenges and opportunities presented by the technology, and practical guidance on implementing or expanding AV accessibility-related projects.

Risk and Reward: What Archivists Should Know About Film Projection
Patricia Ledesma Villon, Walker Art Center
Lori Felker, DePaul University
Kevin Rice, Oriental Theater, Milwaukee
Kate Dollenmayer, Prelinger Archives
Ben Balcom, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

As archivists, we are entrusted with both the preservation and access of rare and original materials created by others. However, many archivists are not often trained to project films or understand the technical standards around film projection as part of access, which is often segmented to the role of projectionists and other technical roles. Projection of works in their original formats, particularly film, is often integral to the nature of the material we steward and can additionally help highlight artistic intent around the medium and further support archival advocacy. Presented by the AMIA Small Gauge and Amateur Film Committee, this roundtable discussion is composed of filmmakers, theatrical projectionists, and archivists. It aims to bring greater awareness to the larger archival community about special issues and considerations concerning the projection of artist-made films, archival prints, and other valuable prints of both small and large gauge formats in addition to theatrical and microcinema 16mm/Super 8 projection.

Human-centered AI-assisted Video Cataloging
Raananah Sarid-Segal, WGBH
Owen King, WGBH
Miranda Villesvik, WGBH
Caroline Mango, WGBH

This panel will present a human-centered approach to AI-assisted cataloging.  Panelists from GBH Archives, working on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, will describe the development, implementation, testing, and use of AI-based media analysis tools within workflows for item-level cataloging digital videos.  Panelists include cataloging, digital ingest, and metadata operations staff who have been involved in the creation and use of AI-based cataloging tools. We will discuss the CLAMS (Computational Linguistics Applications for Multimedia Services) suite of open source AI tools, post-processing CLAMS output for use in cataloging, questions we sought to answer regarding cataloging ease and efficiency, and the results of our experiments with tool integration. We will explain how our approach and roadmap differs from initiatives seeking to make cataloging fully automatic.

Best Practices for Use of Generative AI in Archival Documentaries
Rachel Antell, Archival Producers Alliance
Stephanie Jenkins, Archival Producers Alliance

Generative AI (GenAI) is flooding our world with a dizzying amount of synthetic media, and there is little guidance on how to responsibly navigate this new reality. The Archival Producers Alliance will present the Best Practices Guidelines we have developed for use of GenAI in documentary films. In this panel, we will explore the potential risks that GenAI presents to the Archive, to preservation, to the historical record, and to documentary film–as well as ways of mitigating these risks when using it. We will also discuss the methodology that went into developing the guidelines and how we see the Archival and Documentary spaces evolving in light of this powerful new technology.

Archival Visibility: Preservation, Access, and Education with Milwaukee LGBTQ+ Collections
Shiraz Bhathena, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Ann Hanlon, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries
Abigail Nye, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives is known for its commitment to documenting marginalized communities and provides access to the one of the largest LGBTQ+ history collections in the Midwest. Many of these collections are audiovisual, including episodes and raw footage from Public Access television shows, oral histories in audio and video form, and radio shows from the 1970s.       But after these collections are preserved, how can a learning institution ensure that they are being utilized to their fullest capabilities, both online and in the classroom? Panelists will present an overview of selections from our LGBTQ+ AV collections. We will discuss how tools such as OHMS, IIIF, and speech-to-text tools have helped in facilitating access for patrons on a world-access level. Finally, panelists will demonstrate different ways that the archives’ LGBTQ+ audiovisual collections have been used in instruction, highlighting the unique affordances of audiovisual materials in a classroom context.

Eames in the Castle: Preserving Films Made for the Smithsonian
Walter Forsberg, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Amy Gallick, Library of Congress – NAVCC

Film preservation case study and historical background presentation detailing films produced by Ray and Charles Eames for the Smithsonian Institution, held and collaboratively preserved by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

Staff Picks from the Prelinger Archives
Adrianne Finelli, Prelinger Archives
Kate Dollenmayer, Prelinger Archives
Kristin Lipska, Prelinger Archives
Jennifer Miko, Prelinger Archives
Emily Chao, Prelinger Archives
Megan Needels, Prelinger Archives

Prelinger Archives is in the second year of a three-year grant for mass-digitization of its film collection. Since the start of the project, Prelinger Archives staff have scanned over 2 million feet of film and uploaded over 1000 items, while collectively developing practices of inclusive and reparative description to allow multiple avenues into a vast trove of moving images. This curated screening session will highlight rarities and treasures within the collection that have inspired, delighted, terrified and bewildered staff.    The speakers, all Prelinger Archives staff, will each share experiences from the project as footage is screened and will speak to working with a unique collection that contains a wide array of materials (outtakes, home movies, warped films).

Queer Exhibition and VHS Preservation
Allison Farrell, University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee
Julio Garcia, University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee

Our screening, from the UWM Film Studies Collection’s Queer Media library, highlights three early films by Sadie Benning. Sadie’s work stands apart (including from their father, James Benning) in its DIY, punk rock, stream-of-consciousness storytelling. In this session, we will interrogate the difficulty of accessing their films through screening a VHS copy directly as a prelude to our VHS digitization project.  These works, filmed in Benning’s bedroom using available materials on a Fisher-Price PXL 2000, are prime examples of the resulting “Pixelvision” style for which they are known. In tandem with Pixelvision is the difficulty in deciphering the images onscreen and risk of loss while rerecording in another medium. While watching a good-quality VHS release of “A Place Called Lovely,” “It Wasn’t Love,” and “Girlpower,” we aim to demonstrate both the importance of preserving queer voices through media while emphasizing the value of using already existing media for exhibition.

Made in Milwaukee: Recent Experimental Films from the City
Hugo Ljungbäck, University of Chicago
Lori Felker, DePaul University
Ben Balcom, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

For over five decades, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres has fostered a significant community of experimental filmmakers, who flock to the school for its focus on artist-driven practice. As one of the few schools that still requires students to gain experience working with 16mm film production, Milwaukee has become well-known in avant-garde film circles for its experimental film scene, and the city is now home to an abundance of institutions, programs, festivals, and itinerant spaces that focus on experimental film. In celebration of Milwaukee’s vibrant experimental film community, this screening session will present a survey of recent experimental 16mm films from Milwaukee, highlighting how analog filmmaking is being reinvented by contemporary filmmakers, who make specific use of the medium’s unique affordances and limitations. This session is sponsored by the Small Gauge and Amateur Film Committee.

Screening of Queer Short Films by AMIA LGBT Committee
Kristen Muenz, The Wexner Center for the Arts

Take a break from a long day of conference-going with a micro-film festival hosted by AMIA’s LGBT Committee! We’ll be celebrating queer cinema by screening a handful of the committee’s personal favorite short films spanning genres, geographical locations, and the infinite richness and vibrancy of the queer community. (A full film program will be available at the door, complete with descriptions, backgrounds, and any content warnings.)

Elevating Autistic Voices Through Neuro-Affirming Practices in Audiovisual Archives
Casey Davis, Autistic Voices Oral History Project
Sam Fleishman, Autistic Voices Oral History Project

This session will delve into the Autistic Voices Oral History Project (tAVOHP), an initiative challenging neuro-normative assumptions within archives and oral history, shifting the field toward a neuro-affirming framework. Launched in 2023, tAVOHP addresses the underrepresentation of Autistic lived experiences in the historic record by documenting and preserving the stories of Autistic self-advocates.  Participants will receive an introduction to the neurodiversity paradigm, neuro-affirming frameworks, Autistic culture, and discuss the “double-empathy problem.” Emphasizing cross-neurotype communication as a core competency, this session aims to set a precedent for future memory work.  Project staff will share Autistically-informed methodologies for conducting oral history, providing practical strategies for enhancing communication, creating inclusive spaces, building trust and understanding, and empowering Autistic narratives. Attendees will learn how to create supportive environments for Autistic patrons, donors, colleagues, and others, fostering a more inclusive and empathetic approach to archival and oral history practices.

Archiving Television: A Preview
Owen Gottlieb, Rochester Institute of Technology
Ruta Abolins, Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection
Hugo Ljungbäck, University of Chicago

The Archiving Television panel brings together a selection of the authors from the forthcoming anthology. The authors will provide a cross-section of the volume, which provides new interventions, shedding light on contemporary understandings and practices of the archiving of televisual material. Cases on the panel drawn from subject areas including instructional (classroom) television, reviving from within collections, campus television, and the formation of the remarkably complete Peabody awards archives. “Archiving Television critically engages and evaluates the archives and archival processes that collect, order, and preserve elements of television as historically, culturally, socially, politically, and economically significant material. The overarching intent of this anthology is to interrogate where television as historical material “lives.” To do so, we bring together scholarship by academics, archivists, and practitioners to reflect on the processes and places that confer television with historical value.” -Lauren Bratslavsky, Introduction.