Visual Communications’ Collections is recognized as one of the nation’s most comprehensive repositories of 20th Century Asian Pacific American history. It contains over 300,000 photographic images, 1,500 titles in the Media Resource Library, 100 films and videos produced by Visual Communications, and over 1,000 hours of oral histories.
These resources capture our cultures, communities and histories in America. They have been used in numerous films, videos, educational materials, publications, and major photographic exhibits across the U.S. This includes the traveling photographic exhibit, “Heading East: California’s Asian Pacific American Experience,” which was part of the state’s 1999 sesquicentennial celebration. In addition, our Collections have been utilized by cultural institutions, international and national publications, commercial broadcast outlets and newspapers.

ARCHIVE FEATURES ________________________________________________________

6/24/04


Stacks upon stacks of film reels are needy for attention..

GOING BULLISH
The VC Archives get a lift with creation of the VC Preservation Committee
By Jeff Liu

In this time of illegal insider trading, high oil prices, and lack of guidance in the stock market, VC is investing in Histories. Unlike Futures, which are very volatile, Histories are solid performers with lots of growth potential.

VC’s portfolio includes over 300,000 photographic images, 1,500 titles in the Media Resource Library, 100 films and videos produced by Visual Communications, and over 1,000 hours of oral histories. It is recognized as one of the nation’s most comprehensive repositories of 20th Century Asian Pacific American history.

These resources capture our cultures, communities and histories in America. And they continue to be used in films, videos, educational materials, publications, and major photographic exhibits across the U.S. VC has made it a priority to have its precious resources preserved and reproduced. It is critical that the VC Collections are saved. If they are not, the stories of many generations may be lost forever.

As mentioned in the last “In Focus” newsletter, we announced that the VC Archives was awarded a grant from the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships to kick-start our preservation efforts. The major outcome of the “Asian Pacific American Cultural History Preservation Initiative” will be to provide a computer-based system for cataloguing the large number of items in the VC Archives.

Through the grant, we’ve also been able to enlist the help and support of UCLA Associate Professors Clara Chu and Anne Gilliland-Swetland of the Department of Information Studies; Lindy Leong, a graduate student in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media; Robert Nakamura, professor in the Ethno-Communications Film Department and founding member of Visual Communications.

As members of our newly-formed VC Preservation Advisory Committee, Dr.’s Chu and Swetland have put our efforts on track and given it direction. Over the next year, Visual Communications hopes to vastly improve access and distribution of archival resources for researchers and the public; better identify the condition of our materials; raise public awareness of our archives; establish a preservation and processing facility; and plan for longterm growth.

The VC Archives would like to welcome and thank volunteer Gabi Torres for her time helping us implement this plan. We are also happy to announce that VC will be taking on a preservation specialist/graduate student intern for a few semesters to work on the aforementioned goals.

Cruisin’ J-Town is entering its final stage of preservation work — a new internegative film for archival purposes as well as a new 16mm print. A case study on the “Cruisin’ J-Town” audio preservation component was included in a new National Film Preservation Foundation publication titled, “The Film Preservation Guide: the Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums.” It is written specifically for collection professionals without prior film preservation training, and traces the path of film through the preservation process, from acquisition to exhibition, and describes methods for handling, duplicating, and storing motion pictures.

Free copies of The Film Preservation Guide can be downloaded from the NFPF website (www.filmpreservation.org), or ordered by mail for $8 each.

These histories will make their initial public offering at this summer’s ChiliVisions, so please stay tuned for what is sure to be a blockbuster event.