University Libraries’ Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) has been awarded a 2024 Film Preservation Matching Grant by the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF). The grant will allow MIRC to preserve a selection of newsreel outtakes from the 1920s documenting the personal and professional activities of William Fox, founder of the Fox Film Corporation.
Totaling $31,400 and being matched by $7,840 by MIRC itself, the grant facilitates photochemical and digital preservation of unique nitrate film footage at risk of decay.
“We are grateful to the National Film Preservation Foundation for their generous support on this important project, which continues a long-standing relationship between the NFPF and the University of South Carolina started back in 1998, when our film archive received its first NFPF grant to preserve Fox Movietone News materials” says Daniela Currò, MIRC’s Director and PI for this grant. “With this project MIRC brings to center stage its founding collection and the man who, thanks to incredible vision and ambition, established Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and its newsreel division in 1919.”
As the repository for the Fox Movietone News Collection, MIRC is a natural home for footage of Fox Film Corporation’s founder, and the films that are being preserved by the NFPF grant will enhance researchers’ understanding of the historical context for the Fox Movietone Collection.
Coming from very poor origins, William Fox built an empire made of successful films and rising stars, groundbreaking technological innovations, such as the Fox Movietone system for sound-on-film recording, and magnificent motion picture theaters.
“With their raw, immediate quality, the films we are going to preserve offer moving image documentation of one of the most innovative and ambitious studios of the time, as well as of its elusive founder,” Currò says. “The outtakes featuring William Fox are of particular interest and value because, unlike many of his movie mogul peers, Fox shunned the public stage, so glimpses into his life and activities are rare. With NFPF’s support we will be able to guarantee long-term preservation for these unique films, and share them with researchers, historians, film scholars, and the public at-large”.
The University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) is one of the nation’s leading film repositories. Its holdings comprise more than 10,000 hours of film and video archives. MIRC preserves moving images produced outside the American feature film industry to make them available to present and future audiences, promotes worldwide access to its collections, facilitates study and research, and supports the creative community through licensing and re-use.
Since its creation by Congress in 1996, the NFPF has provided preservation support to 343 institutions across the country and saved 2,831 films through grants and collaborative projects. The grants are made possible by funds authorized through The Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2016, secured through the leadership of the Library of Congress, and the contributions of public-spirited donors.
The NFPF preservation grants target newsreels, silent-era films, culturally important home movies, avant-garde films, and endangered independent productions that fall under the radar of commercial preservation programs. Films saved through the NFPF programs are used in education and seen widely through screenings, exhibits, and streaming. A curated selection of preserved films is available for viewing on the NFPF website, and more than 320 additional titles have been made accessible by NFPF grant recipients.