>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 and within the Boston community, the HFA invites many renowned filmmakers to its theater to present their work and interact with Harvard students and the general audience. Recent guests include Paul Schrader (Light Sleeper), Ken Jacobs, William Friedkin (The French Connection), Albert Serra (Birdsong), So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain), Agnès Varda (Cleo From 5 to 7), Kiju Yoshida (Eros + Massacre) with his wife and muse Mariko Okada, Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo), James Benning (RR), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (The Son), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Claire Denis (Friday Night), the poet John Ashber, and Harvard Professor Stephen Prina.

In addition to their commitment to bringing important filmmakers and their work to Harvard, the HFA remains dedicated to curating intelligent, thought-provoking programs throughout the year. In the first half of 2009, the HFA has offered retrospectives of the work of Max Ophuls, Marie Menken, Pedro Almodovar and, in the summer of 2009, a complete retrospective of the work of American filmmaker Elia Kazan. In addition to directorial retrospectives, the HFA develops programs that explore thematic similarities such as Le Film Maudit, a series of "forbidden," controversial films from the 1960s and 1970s, a survey of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, and a group of documentaries exploring America as seen by filmmakers from abroad.

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.