“Once a film has shrunken, you can send it out to a lab, and they can print the film frame by frame to resurrect it,” Buck said.
Unfortunately, sound problems usually cannot be fixed, especially if the film is an old one, as the soundtracks are printed on film.
Eventually, all films go through the “vinegar syndrome”—a condition where the film starts to decompose and the outside layer will fade and flake off.
To combat this decaying process, the prints are put in cold storage and monitored for acidity and dryness.
The HFA has created an “adopt a film program” to pay for restoration, which costs $30 per film.
It is still unclear how many films will have to be restored.
Donors are encouraged to give $3,000 dollars to a film of their choice from the student film list—a list of 100 films in the HFA collection.
One $3000 donation will pay for the upkeep of a film for 100 years, Buck said.
“Once we get the collection that we have in very good shape, I hope we will be able to expand the collection, and develop a niche where Harvard will be known as the great collection for nonfiction, or personal cinema, or experimental cinema, while still maintaining European art films,” Jenkins said.