Film archive preserves both past and present

One of the first things movie fans think of when they hear the word “Oscars” is the red carpet that glamorous actors and brilliant directors stroll down. At this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, Kelly Chisholm, AS ’01, walked right alongside them.

Chisholm works for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood as a collections services coordinator at the Academy Film Archive.

Her journey from The Green at UD to the red carpet in Hollywood began during her undergraduate years as a chemistry major at the University. An undergraduate research scholar, Chisholm was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant recipient.

“It made a lot of sense to me,” she says of her major. “I was trying to figure out what I could do, and chemistry was the one topic I could tutor people in and explain to people.”

Chisholm says she stumbled upon the field of film preservation after seeing a documentary on the subject and became interested in it because of its applied approach. She started taking film classes at the University and says she decided she wanted to have a career that involved film, while still continuing with her chemistry major.

“I loved college. I think I ended up taking nine or 10 film studies classes,” she says. “All the professors are really great and helped with finding things to do after I graduated. With the help of Peter Feng [associate professor of English], I looked into film preservation. It started to sound interesting, and I went from there.”

Although her background in chemistry isn’t directly connected with film preservation, Chisholm says it didn’t hinder her in searching for a job she wanted.

“I found that, going into the job market, the fact that you had a college degree was important,” she says. “It’s still more about what you learn than technically what your degree is in.”

After her graduation from the University, the Newark, Del., native attended technical school at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School for Film Preservation at the George Eastman House, where she obtained a certificate in film preservation and received a Kodak Fellowship in Film Preservation. Her time at the Selznick School included one year in Rochester, N.Y., working in film archives, visiting professors and taking field trips to learn more about the art of preservation.

“It was very hands-on,” she says. “It was very much like: Today we’ll learn cataloging; tomorrow we’ll learn how to restore film.”

Chisholm says she strengthened her skills with various internships, including positions that involved sound restoration, digital restoration and a photochemical lab, as well as getting to see the commercial side of film preservation.
After technical school, Chisholm was unemployed for a time as she wanted to remain living on the East Coast. Eventually, she says, she interviewed for a job at the University of California Los Angeles Film and Television archive and later moved from there to a position at the academy.

“It’s not nearly as glamorous as people think,” she says.

The academy’s film archive contains two large, climate-controlled vaults, where all the film is kept. The collection focuses on movies that were either nominated or won awards, as well as the telecasts of the award shows themselves. Chisholm says there is also an extensive collection of documentaries, public programming and home movies from celebrities and other people.

She says the most difficult task she faces is dealing with the public mindset concerning new formats and technologies.
“I’m asked all the time, ‘Oh, so you guys are just putting everything on DVD now?’ and it’s frustrating to hear,” she says. “People get used to thinking the images will be there forever, and we have to fight against that public opinion.”
Chisholm says she believes it’s important to preserve motion pictures because they show what life was like in the early 1900s.

“The 20th century is the first time where we can literally look at people living and going about their daily business in the movies and observe how culture was reflected in mass media,” she says. “We will have a better idea of how it was to live in the 20th century as time goes on, and that information will become more and more valuable—documentaries, movie footage, any kind of footage.”

Chisholm says using film as a medium is crucial to the preservation of motion pictures because of its longevity and durability, unlike DVDs and videotapes.

“Look back over the last 20 years and see where things would be if you hadn’t been using film,” she says. “If you have old VHS tapes, they look fuzzy and may have lost their magnetism. Digital technology moves so fast, it gets hard to even have equipment to look at it.

“Even if we have huge uncompressed digital files, how long will they stay good? If it gets dropped or something, that information is gone. We can physically open up a can and look at the film and say, ‘Oh, that’s what this is.’ Hopefully, if you put film in a cold, dry vault, it should last for hundreds of years. Film is still the best way to go.”

Chisholm says her current position is an administrative job, working with donors and depositors who give film to the archive. One of the perks of working for the academy is an annual invitation to the Oscars. In years past, Chisholm says she has taken her mother and sister as guests.
Chisholm has worn the same simple black dress every year. “No one cares what you’re wearing unless you’re a celebrity,” she says.

—Kelly Durkin, AS ’08

This article is reprinted with the permission of The Review, UD’s student newspaper.