As I continue to compile the list of titles of films that the Heinz History Center has received from the Westinghouse Archives, I am continuously reminded of what appears to be an utter disregard for an important documentary format.
It is clear that at some point, the Westinghouse company officials understood the significance of and the impact that moving images had on society. Why else would they have documented plant activities, machinery and/or produced topical films on a variety of subjects? Yet, these films have been left to face their unceremonious (inevitable) demise, first, in the vaults of the Westinghouse Archive and now in the Heinz storage rooms. It seems an ignoble death for a film to be relegated to shelving space in a storage room (even one with a fairly decent HVAC) and simply forgotten.
The films that we are inspecting and inventorying may not be art films or particularly representative of a specific auteur’s signature but they do represent a style of film and reflect period in which they were produced. These are reasons enough for the institutions in whose care these films have been placed to find more appropriate means of stewardship.
As we discussed in class, if the Heinz is incapable of storing and providing proper access to these films, they should seek a better home. If there is some sort of donation stipulation that prevents the Heinz from transferring their ownership, then perhaps they can work a little harder to find a sponsor or apply for grants that will off-set costs to create archival copies for use and purchase enough archival containers to make sure the films are safely stored.
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