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Haden Guest is the director of film conservation at the Harvard Film Archive (HFA). He guides The Harvard Crimson through the archive’s maze of film prints, projection rooms, and editing tables. With a deep passion for film preservation, Guest offers an insider’s look at the work that keeps cinematic history alive at the HFA. Here, he smiles in front of his poster for Shohei Imamura’s Histoire du Japon racontée par une hôtesse de bar.

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Guest starts off the tour by opening up a developed roll of black-and-white 16mm film. With over 40,000 audiovisual materials in its collection, the HFA is one of the nation’s largest university-based film collections and a treasure trove of global cinematic history.

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An old projector model from Guest’s personal collection sits beside a physical copy of Eadweard Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion, a work that played a key role in the early development of motion pictures.

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Guest’s office is filled with film memorabilia, with walls and tables adorned by pieces he has collected over the years, reflecting his passion for cinema.

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The HFA is continually expanding its collection of international film prints. Here, Guest highlights a 16mm film print shipped from Japan.

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Guest then pulls a film print of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me from the HFA’s extensive collection. With an upcoming David Lynch program featuring Eraserhead and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the archive is filled with Lynch material in preparation for the much-anticipated screenings.

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The HFA often acquires a variety of different film prints for their screenings, displaying select posters on Steenbeck flatbed editing tables where visitors can view prints they have requested to access.

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The hidden star of the HFA theater is its Kinoton FP-30D projector, a powerhouse that brings film print screenings to life.

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This tool, used to check the aspect ratio of a film, offers a final glimpse into the detailed process of preserving and presenting cinematic works at the HFA – a testament to the archive’s dedication to keeping film history alive.

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