In answer to Alison's question about the National Film Registry: As you recall, the bruhaha several years ago over colorization resulted in Congressional Hearings. As a result Congress passed the "Film Preservation Act," an attempt at protecting artists from rampant colorization of their films. The Act established a Preservation Board made up of archivists, directors, studio heads, etc. who vote annually on the 25 films. Essentially what the Act does for these films is stipulate that if they are ever altered ( a narrow definition which translates to colorized) they must be given the equivalent of a warning label which states that the director, writer, etc. were not consulted. They are not funded for preservation, although the Library of Congress tries to acquire archival materials (i.e. original negatives, pristine projection prints) of each title, but this is not a mandate of the Act -- the L.C. has made it their internal policy. When the Act came up for renewal in 91 or 92, I don't remember exactly, Congress passed it again and gave it a bit more substance. It asked the L.C. to come up with a National Preservation Plan. The first part of this plan is completed. It is an impressive document bothof quality and of sheer bulk called "Film Preservation 1993: A Study of the Current State of American Film Preservation." It outlines issues such as funding, storage, studio archives, etc. Of interest to me, and perhaps this discussion group, was a critical statement in the document: that access is part of preservation. Without educational and commercial access to archival holdings, there is no reason to preserve. The second part of the Preservation Plan is currently under way. A series of task forces are addressing the issues brought up in the document. The task forces focus on education, funding, etc. If you want more specific info Alison, I have lots of fun stuff in my office. The fact that Film Preservation, which is a term which is becoming less easy to define is being given this kind of recognition is important. As we move into the dreamy digitized future, educational access to film and video will get comp licated. This Act is a link for archivists and scholars who care about these issues. If anyone has concerns or further interest, please let me know. Andrea Kalas Archive Research and Study Center UCLA Film and Television Archive [log in to unmask]