2 Developments in Film Preservation--AFI Given Lloyd Trust, Festival Set

Film, television and video preservation took two steps forward this week, as two leading institutions in the field announced plans to further the cause.

--The American Film Institute said Thursday that it has been given the $1.1-million Harold Lloyd Foundation Trust, the income of which AFI plans to use for film and video preservation projects, among others.

--The UCLA Film and Television Archive on Wednesday announced a new, annual festival of restored films and television programs. The first Festival of Preservation--intended to both entertain and emphasize the need for the support of costly moving image preservation--is scheduled for Feb. 20-March 3.

Establishing the Harold Lloyd Endowment with its $1.1-million gift, AFI plans to use earnings from the fund to support various ongoing projects at its National Center for Film and Video Preservation. The center coordinates preservation efforts of archives across the county.

The institute also plans to use the endowment to help pay off the mortgage on its Hollywood Hills campus, and to support its 18-year-old Master Seminar Series of film makers’ lectures, which it will name after Lloyd.

According to UCLA Film and Television Archive Director Robert Rosen, the UCLA archive contains about 26 million feet of film, produced on nitrate film stock, in need of preservation. Until the early ‘50s, all films were made on nitrate film--which gradually deteriorates to dust--and, Rosen said, half of all the films made in the United States before 1950 are gone.

The first Festival of Preservation, marking the UCLA archive’s 10th anniversary, will include 21 restored American classic films.

For a Festival of Preservation program and ticket information, call (213) 825-2581.