Film Curatorship: Archives, Museums, and the Digital Marketplace

by Paolo Cherchi Usai (Editor)

What are the major issues and challenges film archives, cinémathèques, and film museums are bound to face in the digital age, and at a time when there is an expectation of access on demand? What is curatorship, and what does it imply in the context of film preservation and presentation? Is there a concept of the “film artifact” that transcends the idea of film as “content” or “art” in the information age?

Film Curatorship is an a collective text, a montage of dialogues, conversations, and exchanges among four professionals representing three generations of film archivists and curators. It calls for an open philosophical and ethical debate on fundamental questions the profession must come to terms with in the twenty-first century.

This book is jointly published with Le Giornate del Cinema muto, Pordenone, Italy.

Genres: Film

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Paolo Cherchi Usai is Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Department and director of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, USA, and founder of the annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Reviews

[Sanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The format (mostly just dividing very conversational writing to multiple columns per page) is a bit tiring, but the essence is superb. This was written when the film projection was still very much based on film and DVD was flying high, but the message itself is not dated.