PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
Please note: Session times and speakers are subject to change.
Updates will be posted as they become available.
Download the Program here

Tuesday .. | .. Wednesday.. | .. Thursday .. | .. Friday .. | .. Saturday

7:30 am - 5:00 pm - Egan Conference Center
AMIA Registration Desk Open

8:30 am - 5:00 pm - Egan Conference Center
Continuous Screening: 60 YEARS OF BRITISH PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS I would suggest this configuration-thoughts?

8:30 am - 10:00 am - Egan Conference Center
Difficult Choices: Planning and Managing Preservation Projects in a Non-Profit Setting

Hosted by: Preservation Committee

Co-Chairs:
Josef W. Lindner - Academy Film Archive
Mark Toscano - Academy Film Archive

Speakers:
Criss Kovac - National Archives and Records Administration
Daniel Wagner - George Eastman House
Audrey Amidon - National Archives and Records
Carolyn Faber - Midwest Media Archives Alliance

Motion picture preservation always requires choices: which films to preserve, what elements to use, and what materials to create and vault. Preservationists working in a non-profit setting face these questions, plus an array of more difficult choices. Do you spend limited funds to fully protect the most difficult projects? Or do you spread your resources across the widest number of titles? Some institutions may have mandates that guide them to projects outside of their collections, and thus end up developing a preservation project with materials they don't actually own or control. Negotiating the complex relationships between institutions, both commercial and non-profit, as well as with individual film-makers, becomes essential. And while some archives have their own laboratories, at some point most archivists will have to send work to outside vendors. The preservationists on this panel will examine these issues, citing examples of preservation projects from their own archives.

8:30 am - 10:00 am - Egan Conference Center
Planning for your Digitizing Project

Hosted by: Digital Initiatives Committee

Chair:
John Walko - Scene Savers

Speakers:
Lisa Carter - University of Kentucky
Linda Tadic - ARTstor
Karen Colbron - WGBH Educational Foundation

Description: Many organizations are undertaking digitizing projects for preservation and access to their moving image assets. This session is designed to help you plan your project, help control costs, finish on time and ensure you accomplish your goals. After attending this session, you will: Understand how to classify your project (preservation, access or hybrid); Determine the best course of action (compression formats, storage); Understand how all departments (Marketing, Management, IT, Archives) must work together to ensure a successful project; Evaluate your source material to figure out what to digitize; Understand how to choose your best metadata format that and how the schema you choose affects your archive's future; Understand the costs involved and how to set up a budget; Understand a common workflow and application to your funding proposal; Walk away with a map to guide you through your project from start to finish.

8:30 am - 10:00 am - Egan Conference Center
Archival Survival: Keeping Your Archive Healthy in an Increasingly Demanding Academic Environment

Hosted by: Academic-Archival Interest Group

Chair:
Rebecca Bachman - New York University

Speakers:
Geoff Alexander - Academic Film Archive of North America
Dan Streible - Cinema Studies, New York University
Heather Norris Nicholson - Manchester Metropolitan University

Description: Archivists existing within the framework of academic institutions are increasingly under pressure from a number of budgetary, philosophical, economic, and political elements, all of which can, if contrarian enough, cause an archive to lose its funding. Recently, at least three notable film archives within academic institutions have lost either all or partial funding. This panel serves as a warning to potentially everyone within the AMIA community operating within institutions both inside and outside the academy. This presentation is geared towards archivists whose libraries struggle for budget and space; whose institutional advocate is weak or non-existent; or who need additional alliances to the survival of the archive. The panel will explore how this condition could occur when least expected; in addition, we'll offer ways to proactively see potential problem areas and offer strategies to better formulate successful solutions.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - Egan Conference Center
Archiving on $20 a Day

Co-Chairs:
Wendy Shay - Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Pamela Wintle - Human Studies Film Archives, National Museum of Natural History

Speakers:
Chuck Howell - Library of American Broadcasting
Leo Enticknap - Northern Region Film & Television Archive
Mark Taylor - National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Michele Kribs - Oregon Historical Society
Karen Glynn - Special Collections Library, Duke University

Description: While no moving image archivist feels their organization has enough money, many archives are chronically under funded or have experienced periods of severe hardship. This panel will examine how to keep a moving image archive functioning when financial support barely covers basic needs. The speakers will discuss creative ways of raising funds, caring for collections, and fulfilling the archival mission when the budget is $20 a day or less.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - Egan Conference Center
Site and Sound: Recording Traditional Cultures in Alaska and British Columbia (1899-1980)

Chair:
Kevin N. Tripp - Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA)

Speakers:
Craig Coray - University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Music
Jonathan Wise - Canadian Museum of Civilization

Description: This session will examine 20th Century ethnographic filmmaking and audio recording in northwestern North America. Jonathan Wise will discuss the work of Harlan Ingersol Smith (1872-1940), a pioneering ethnographic filmmaker who worked among aboriginal communities of the Pacific Northwest during the 1920s. Smith's films documented a period of proud tradition and profound change among the Bella Coola, Tsimshian, Coast Salish, Shuswap, Kootenay, Nootka and Carrier peoples of British Columbia and contributed to an understanding of the cultures with which he worked, as well as the wider relationship between ethnographers and the people they study. Craig Coray will provide a history of field recordings of native music in Alaska, discussing both the recording equipment that was used, and the anthropologists and ethnomusicologists who made the recordings-some under very primitive conditions.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - Egan Conference Center
Publish for the Profession! How to Make Your Mark in the Literature of Moving Image Archiving

Hosted by: Publications Committee

Chair:
Karen F. Gracy - School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Speakers:
Karen F. Gracy - School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Nancy Marrelli - Concordia University Archives
Dan Streible - Cinema Studies, New York University

Description: This session is targeted at the entire membership of AMIA, with the goal of encouraging more of our members to consider writing for publication. Topics to be addressed include the importance of developing literature in the moving image archives field, the process of submission to journals and book publishers, and the peer review process. Panel members will present a sample publication project and the steps it goes through before publication. The panel will review the purpose and scope of AMIA publications, and also talk about opportunities to publish in other allied fields, including film studies, conservation, library and information science, and museum studies. A lively debate with the membership about successes, desiderata, and future goals will be encouraged.

12:00 pm- 1:45 pm - Egan Conference Center
Awards & Scholarship Luncheon

Please join us for lunch and raise a glass to toast the 2006 recipients of the AMIA Silver Light Award, Leab Award and the 2006 Scholarship and Fellowship awards, the IPI Internship and the Maryann Gomes Award and the Carolyn Hauer International Fund.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm - Egan Conference Center
Ethical Dimensions of Audiovisual Archiving

Chair:
Ray Edmondson - Archive Associates

Speakers:

Ray Edmondson - Archive Associates

Julia Noordegraaf - University of Amsterdam

Steve Ricci - UCLA

Howard Besser - New York University

Description: To provide a background for the discussion on the development of an AMIA Code of Ethics; to inform AMIA members on ethical dilemmas in the practice of audiovisual archiving. Aimed at all conference participants (no particular skills required) and in particular at the participants of the AMIA Code of Ethics initiative. This session aims to present several case studies that illustrate ethical dilemmas in the profession of audiovisual archiving. Any archivist encounters ethical dilemmas when making decisions on the preservation, access and use of audiovisual collections. This topic deserves further reflection, as the support for the development of an AMIA Code of Ethics shows. This session thus serves as a preparation for or follow-up to the proposed session on the development of an AMIA Code of Ethics. Confirmed contributions will focus on the ethics of digital film restoration and the selection, preservation and use of criminal tribunals.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm - Egan Conference Center
Scanning Archival Film: Status Report

Chair:
Andrea Kalas - British Film Institute

Speakers:
Ken Weissman - Library of Congress
Tony Ray - Dragon Digital
Danny De Vincent - Cineric

Description: Scanning archival film is the first step towards digitization for access, restoration and preservation. Archivists overseeing film collections large and small must grapple with the technologies available. This session feature three case studies of users of this technology. How much shrinkage can scanners withstand? Which formats? The session will be pitched at a fairly technical audience but with the understanding that many of all skill levels will want to have this information.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm - Egan Conference Center
Video Preservation Training - Development of Resources and Tools

Co-Chairs:
Chris Lacinak - Independent
Mona Jimenez - MIAP Program - Department of Cinema Studies, NYU

Speakers:
Chris Lacinak - Independent
Mona Jimenez - MIAP Program - Department of Cinema Studies, NYU

Description: There is general consensus that moving image archivists need hands-on experience with the media itself to accomplish preservation, but there is a lack of clear understanding as to what degree of experience is appropriate.

Video preservation training should attempt to resolve this question and offer new toolsets and resources to the video archivist - those which borrow from, but do not simply repeat, traditional technical training or archival education. The session will open with key concepts, theories and lessons learned in teaching video preservation in a lab setting, in an effort to define the framework for a syllabus that matches the evolving role of the moving image archivist. The panel will then present a "straw-man" compendium of concepts, resources, practices and tools that support such a syllabus. There will also be ample time left for questions, feedback and input from the audience.

4:00 pm- 5:30 pm - Egan Conference Center
AMIA Annual Meeting and Open Forum

Description: All conference attendees are encouraged to attend the Annual General Meeting and Open Forum to hear the annual report from the AMIA Board of Directors. The open forum will provide an opportunity for participants to raise issues and challenges not addressed elsewhere during the conference.

7:30 pm - 8:45 pm - Egan Conference Center
Quad Videotape at 50: An Anniversary Salute

Chair:
Jeff Martin - Moving Image Archiving Consultant

Speaker:
Louisa Trott - Tennessee Archives of Moving Image and Sound

Description: Between 1956 and the mid-80s, quad was the medium for the recording of thousands of hours of memorable - and not-so-memorable images, people, and events. The screening will open with a short original video presentation demonstrating the workings of a 2" machine, a fascinating operation few archivists are able to see firsthand. Working with archives to showcase preserved material, as well as the remarkable image quality 2" quad tape afforded, the screening will then highlight the unfamiliar and undiscovered--from training tapes for quad machines, to network spectaculars, from early local children's programming to syndicated country music television--not to mention materials from Alaskan collections.

9:00 pm - 10:15 pm - Egan Conference Center
Anchorage's Emerging Media Making Community

Hosted by: Independent Media Interest Group (IMIG)

Co-Chairs:
Stephen Parr - San Francisco Media Archive/Oddball Film+Video
Carolyn Faber - Midwest Media Archives Alliance

Speakers:
Bob Curtis-Johnson - Summit Day Media
Tony Shepard - Anchorage International Film Festival
Shannon Gramse - MEDIAK/Cook Inlet Tribal Council
Carolyn Robinson - SprocketHeads

Description: Every region in the United States has a unique media making community. Exhibition venues, funding, the physical and cultural landscape affect the way media is produced. Exploring the work of local media makers inspires greater understanding of the independent production community at
large. Anchorage is rife with independent filmmakers and emerging media organizations that regularly screen films, educating and activating budding image makers. This screening will feature a rich cross section of films and videos, a taste of Anchorage's distinctly independent media making community. The Anchorage Film Festival highlights gems from their annual festival; SprocketHeads, a group of professional independents, will screen clips of their PBS WWII documentary "Aleut Story" and other shorts; and MEDIAK (the Media Education and Development Institute of Alaska co-sponsored by Cook Inlet Tribal Council) will screen shorts by tribal youth who will introduce their short films from this newly instituted media arts program. Bob Curtis-Johnson will also be on hand to screen clips from his "Bob'sShorts Moviemakers' ThrowDown."