Description: The intrepid filmmaker’s guide to archive footage, photos and more
filmmaker (2355) footage (146) archival (104) photo archive (33) film archive (17) film search (1)
The front page of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) website unequivocally states: “Democracy Starts Here.”
That may be true enough. But not quite—at least, when it comes to searching for film archives. To do that, you have to drill a little deeper down into the website. If this is your first time doing film research and don’t want to take a leisurely online stroll—through some amazingly rich areas, but ones that have little to do with motion pictures—my advice is to click on the no-brainer-named “ Start Your Research ” link in the left-hand navigation column.
That will take you to a page describing NARA’s holdings, which we’re told “would circle the Earth over 57 times!” Again, unless you’re in the mood to circumnavigate the globe a few times, go to the left-hand navigation column (which now has a whole new set of items) and click on the “ Motion Pictures and Sound ” link. The page you’re now on, entitled “Motion Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings,” is definitely worth browsing through, to get acquainted with the nature of the holdings (a whopping 300,