Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States [Paperback]

Anthony Slide (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786408367 | ISBN-13: 978-0786408368 | Publication Date: August 7, 2000

This study looks at the preservation process: newsreel, television, and color preservation; the often controversial issue of colorization; and commercial film archives. It provides detailed histories of the major players in the preservation battle including the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, the American Film Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the Library of Congress.

This first historical overview of film preservation in the United States is also highly controversial in its exposure and criticism of the politicization of film preservation in recent years, and the rising bureaucracy which has often lost sight of preservation and restoration as the ultimate purpose of film archives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wealth of information...will be a valuable addition" -- Choice

"Covers the entire spectrum of film preservation beautifully" -- Big Reel

"There cannot be a more timely or important book published this year" -- Classic Images

About the Author

Film historian Anthony Slide of Studio City, California was hailed by Lillian Gish as "our preeminent historian of the silent film era." He is the author of numerous works of film scholarship.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (August 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786408367
• ISBN-13: 978-0786408368
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,203,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mis-adventures of film preservation, July 8, 2002

By 

Bruce Calvert "silent movie collector" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States (Paperback)

Anthony Slide writes a fascinating history of the film preservation movement in the United States. After covering the dangers of nitrate film and the wholesale junking of film prints during the silent era, he documents the beginning of the archive movement in the 1930s and 1940s. You would think that the book would be filled with stories of heroic efforts to save films, but there are just as many stories of incompetent and egotistical administrators who did more damage than good. The American Film Institute did a good job for a few years helping archives to preserve and restore films, but it quickly became a political organization and mostly claimed credit for projects that it had nothing to do with. The book goes into detail into the "colorization" controversy, a process which thankfully has pretty much disappeared since this book was published in 1992. There is also a section on how Scandinavian archives have done a much better job of preserving their countries' film heritage. If you are a serious lover of silent films or the golden age of sound films, you will definitely want to read this book!