National Film Registry

[beamish14]

Glad to see Queen of Diamonds make it - I've only begun exploring Menkes's films this year and had really dug everything I've watched so far.

It is an interesting choice-and already preserved by the Academy

[Lemmy Caution]

TCM was just running a day of films newly inducted into the Film Registry. My Welcome to America viewing of TCM. I caught the waterfront racial drama Edge of the City. And before that the end of a 70s women's prison documentary which was very interesting, but only listed as movie, so I need to dredge up the title. The 25 mins I saw was pretty riveting. Great re-intro to TCM!

[Matt]

The documentary was We’re Alive. The same restored version is available free on YouTube, and there’s a great story about how the restoration came to be.

[Lemmy Caution]

Great stuff. Thanks for the links. Not only is the restoration and crediting history interesting, but the backstory how the film got made is tucked in there. In 1974, the trio of students from UCLA were supposed to teach a filmmaking course at the California Institute for Women. But the prisoners seized on it as a way to get their concerns raised and voices heard. So they switched to making a documentary, considering it as a collaborative effort. I'll have to watch the whole film now.

[hearthesilence]

Feels like the height of UCLA's film school days post-Coppola et al. I think Charles Burnett and Thom Andersen would've been enrolled at the time too.

[beamish14]

Feels like the height of UCLA's film school days post-Coppola et al. I think Charles Burnett and Thom Andersen would've been enrolled at the time too.

Burnett was acting as a DP on student films through at least 1985! Jamaa Fanaka was certainly there, too

[Blip Martindale]

Burnett was acting as a DP on student films through at least 1985!

Whut the - ? Was he teaching there? Was he paid in some way? Was this merely a gesture of good will towards aspiring filmmakers?

[beamish14]

Burnett was acting as a DP on student films through at least 1985!

Whut the - ? Was he teaching there? Was he paid in some way? Was this merely a gesture of good will towards aspiring filmmakers?

He was able to take advantage of their facilities for his own projects like Bless Their Little Hearts, and he enjoyed supporting other filmmakers. I don’t believe he’s ever been an instructor there, but he has taught at Cal Arts (as has Hearts director Billy Wooodberry)

[Feego]

2024 inductees:

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)
KoKo’s Earth Control (1928)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
The Miracle Worker (1962)
The Chelsea Girls (1966)
Ganja and Hess (1973)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-76)
Up in Smoke (1978)
Will (1981)
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Dirty Dancing (1987)
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)
Powwow Highway (1989)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
American Me (1992)
Mi Familia (1995)
Compensation (1999)
Spy Kids (2001)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
The Social Network (2010)

[Apperson]

Spy Kids (2001)

[The Curious Sofa]

I've never seen it as I'm not the right demographic, but I was tempted because the reviews were rapturous back then. It's the sequels that have been a case of diminishing returns.

[Apperson]

Wow, your completely right! I would've guessed a score in the high 60's or low 70's, that's crazy.

[The Curious Sofa]

I'm starting to feel I've missed out:

As a piece of almost dadaist filmmaking, Spy Kids is great fun [...].

[knives]

It was definitely big stuff back in the day. A kids movie by someone who does not get kids to such a degree it turned back around.

[beamish14]

American Me makes me very, very happy. So now they’ve got two movies with Edward James Olmos and the Zoot Suit Riots

Again, a dearth of independent animated films

Nonsensical to have Spy Kids when El Mariachi isn’t there.

David Fincher finally gets in..but not for Fight Club?

[Captain Paranoia]

It was definitely big stuff back in the day. A kids movie by someone who does not get kids to such a degree it turned back around.

It's the type of film that comes to mind when i think of someone phoning up his frequent collaborators and actor friends with the intention of making a silly family film for his kids and overall just throwing a bunch of crap together.

I remember I liked it when I was a kid, not as much as I've gotten older. Although putting aside several goofy character names and some digital effects that haven't aged well, I do think It's fairly charming in its story and theme, and for something that kicked off a string of dumb family films I associated him with for long, it's definitely his best one.

[hearthesilence]

Great to see The Chelsea Girls getting in, also My Own Private Idaho.

[agnamaracs]

I'm always excited to see what they choose other than narrative features, and seeing this made me incredibly happy:

KoKo’s Earth Control (1928)

A brilliant piece of animation. (But not for the photosensitive.)

[colinr0380]

Presumably Chelsea Girls has to be a little bit in tribute to the late Paul Morrissey. Here's a PBS report about this year's list.

[colinr0380]

Via a post by Ben Model, the Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored project have put up their recent 2023 restoration of KoKo's Earth Control on their YouTube channel to celebrate the film being put into the National Film Registry.

[Captain Paranoia]

Considering that Chelsea Girls (along the rest of Warhol's filmography) surprisingly has never received a DVD release outside of a box set in Italy courtesy of Raro Video, it's nice knowing that it will be preserved in the National Film Registry.

P.S. I would kill for a boutique label to release several of Warhol's films. I could see someone such as Flicker Alley and/or Vinegar Syndrome putting out some films of his.

[Matt]

The National Film Registry actually means nothing. It just means that a group decided “hey this film is important” and put it on a list. It’s still up to individual archives to determine what is preserved.

The Warhol films are all well-cared for by MoMA and The Andy Warhol Museum. They just haven’t ever been made available on video because the Warhol Museum wants to treat them as art objects and not things made for mass consumption. Which is ironic, because they will literally slap images from Warhol’s art on anything now.

[beamish14]

The National Film Registry actually means nothing. It just means that a group decided “hey this film is important” and put it on a list. It’s still up to individual archives to determine what is preserved.

The Warhol films are all well-cared for by MoMA and The Andy Warhol Museum. They just haven’t ever been made available on video because the Warhol Museum wants to treat them as art objects and not things made for mass consumption. Which is ironic, because they will literally slap images from Warhol’s art on anything now.

Doesn’t the Library of Congress try to keep celluloid elements of every film that is selected, though? I know it doesn’t mean that they’ve been earmarked for preservation in any way. The Recording Registry really means nothing, though, beyond having a CD in their catalog

[Blutarsky]

P.S. I would kill for a boutique label to release several of Warhol's films. I could see someone such as Flicker Alley and/or Vinegar Syndrome putting out some films of his.

I doubt any of the Warhol films will get a physical media release per the above post. However, the Warhol museum does have a selection of his films available for streaming for a hefty price (but they do include pretty cool introductions).

I will say too if you find yourself looking for a cool holiday destination, Pittsburgh has the museum pretty close to downtown and I spent a whole day there looking at his art but mainly watching his movies in a dedicated room.

[agnamaracs]

The Recording Registry really means nothing, though, beyond having a CD in their catalog

I think the musical selections are mostly symbolic. There will never not be copies of Thriller or Kind of Blue. Once you take those out, you find the real meat of the Registry.