We’re excited to close out our series with NYWIFT and Women’s Film Preservation Fund with an assembly of some of the best minds in preservation and understanding the archive walking us through the basics. Once you have a finished your documentary and it is a file on your hard drive, have you thought about how to make sure it will last? Or do you have a movie, shot on film, that can no longer be shown because the print is in tatters and no one is screening 16mm anymore? Do you have a documentary master on an obsolescent videotape format? Have you ever wondered if storing your film, video or digital work in your home or studio is a good idea, and why placing it in an archive will ensure its longevity?

Once a production has been completed documentarians are often consumed with their next project and don’t have access to resources or a budget to figure out how to make sure their work is preserved for longevity. Although intention exists to keep the work alive for the long run — preservation and accessibility maintenance is another job in and of itself, and a line item that isn’t usually included in production budgets. Sustainability of one’s body of work is essential to our shared discipline, to keep our stories in the conversation, to maintain its relevancy and aid each artist’s livelihood.

Join us for the final installment of FROM THE VAULT for answers to some of these questions in an introductory presentation on archiving and preserving film and video. This event offers a basic overview and first steps for the long-term safeguarding of motion pictures, making work accessible for exhibition and monetization over a lifetime.

Join a panel of stellar experts from across the field including Rufus De Rham ( Film Society of Lincoln Center), Kelly Haydon (NYU, Special Collections), Bill Seery (The Standby Program), and Caroline Gil (MoMA) for a panel on best practices for archiving and preserving your work moderated by Pamela Cruz.

Kelly Haydon is the Audiovisual Archivist for the Special Collections within New York University’s Bobst Library. Previously, she was the Preservation Manager at Bay Area Video Coalition. She holds degrees from NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (where she is also an adjunct professor) and the School of Visual Arts. She volunteers as a media archivist for XFR Collective and Third World Newsreel.

Bill Seery, the Director of Preservation Services for The Standby Program, has over 30 years of experience in sound design, editing and mixing for film, video, radio and multimedia as the owner and operator of Mercer Media. For the past 20 years he has been active in the conservation and restoration of time based media including audio and moving image materials, and installation art. In partnership with The Standby Program, he created the first not for profit magnetic media preservation center on the East Coast working to conserve the collections of institutions including Hallwalls, Electronic Arts Intermix, Experimental Television Center, Franklin Furnace, Anthology Film Archives, NYU Fales Library, The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Wooster Group and the works of individual artists including James Nares, Beryl Korot, Carolee Schneeman, Vito Acconci, David Wojnarowicz, Henry Hills and Nam June Paik.

Rufus de Rham is the Programming Operations Manager at Film Society of Lincoln Center where he manages the print traffic and technical projection operations. He also programs film festivals and series, such as Sound + Vision, My First Film Festival, Scary Movies, New York Asian Film Festival, Old School Kung Fu Festival and more. He holds a MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University and has worked on archival projects for institutions such as NYU, Democracy Now!, the September 11 Television Archive, The Joint Jewish Distribution Center, BronxNet, Activist Archivists, Video at Risk, and Third World Newsreel.

Caroline Gil is a media archivist, with experience working with artists, cultural heritage institutions, private art collectors, and non-profits. Caroline is currently a Fellow in Media Conservation at The Museum of Modern Art, and has worked at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Smithsonian’s Center for Folklore and Cultural Heritage, the New Art Trust, New York Public Library, Third World Newsreel, Allied Productions, Filmoteca Cataluña, and with media artists’ personal collections. She is a graduate of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, holds a Director of Cinematography MA from Universidad de Barcelona-ESCAC and BA in Visual Arts.

Pamela Cruz (Moderator) is an archives executive with extensive global experience in assessment, organization, preservation, and management of asset collections. Her career has included being chief strategist for the National Historic Preservation Center, Girl Scouts of the USA; vice president of archival services, Miramax Films; antiques manager, Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation and an advisor for private collections. During her years at Miramax, she was responsible for the inception of the Miramax Archives Department, creating archive databases, and systems for archival tracking and storage for Miramax and Dimension Films. She worked with an array of asset collections in Italy, France, Romania, Mexico and the U.S., as well as on leveraging use of archives, including for museum exhibits, publications and media. Cruz has served on the Board of Directors of Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (A.R.T.) as vice president responsible for monthly programming and later as president. She is currently the A.R.T. representative to the Regional Archival Associations Consortium for Society of American Archivists for 2016 – 2018. Cruz is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, where she is on the Women’s Film Preservation Fund steering committee. She recently completed a tenure on the board of directors for IndieCollect, whose mission is to preserve and make accessible independent American films. In 2017 Cruz was appointed to the 15-member NYC Archives, Research and Reference Advisory Board by Mayor de Blasio.