>the harvard film archive

The centerpiece of film exhibition on campus is the Harvard Film Archive. The HFA presents curated film series Friday through Monday nights, with occasional Sunday matinee screenings. Classroom screenings for VES take place on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. All films are presented in the newly renovated lecture hall at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, which boasts state-of-the-art 35mm, 16mm, and video projection. The Archive maintains an impressive collection of 35 and 16mm material for almost 14,000 titles, including a large number of exhibition prints and pre-print materials. The HFA collection also includes many posters and documents accessible to researchers through the Fine Arts Library.
           
In addition to its Carpenter Center offices, the Archive also has a conservation and research facility at 625 Massachusetts Avenue, near Central Square. The HFA has recently launched an ambitious preservation program that includes films by Abigail Child, Helen Hill, George Kuchar, and rare audio recordings by Hollis Frampton. Along with film preservation, the HFA also aims to preserve the film experience by providing historically appropriate projection of films and moving image media from around the world and across film history in a theatrical setting.

With the goal of furthering the artistic and academic appreciation of cinema on campus, the HFA invites many renowned filmmakers to campus to present their work and interact with Harvard students and the general audience. In 2007–2008 alone, the HFA hosted visits by Pedro Costa (Colossal Youth), Michael Haneke (Funny Games), Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light), Olivier Assayas (Boarding Gate), Jose Luis Guerin (In the City of Sylvia), Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen), and Arthur Penn (The Chase, Night Moves), as well as avant-garde filmmakers Robert Beavers, Robert Fenz, Ernie Gehr, and Peter Hutton. In addition, the HFA also presented work by VES professors Lodge Kerrigan and Robb Moss.

Even in an era of widespread video availability there remains no substitute for intelligently curated film programs. Among the HFA’s many offerings for the 2007–08 season were directorial retrospectives of Curtis Harrington, Ingmar Bergman, and Norman Mailer, as well as archival and contemporary surveys (New Romanian Cinema, Vice vs. Virtue in Pre-Code Hollywood) showcasing a range of historical and current trends in American and world cinema. 

Founded by Robert Gardner, Alfred Guzzetti, Stanley Cavell, William Rothman, and Vlada Petric, with the assistance of the Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the HFA began its ongoing exhibition schedule on March 16, 1979, with a screening of Ernst Lubitsch’s silent film, Lady Windermere’s Fan. Film Studies concentrators and students enrolled in VES film courses receive free admission to all HFA screenings, even for films not on their syllabi, including special events.