PLAN A TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM

The Library of Congress intends to contract on a sole-source basis with the Center for Home Movies as follows: STATEMENT OF WORK 1) Plan and Execute a two-day symposium of international significance on home movies and amateur film 2) Prepare a Follow-up Action Plan with recommended steps to take Period of Performance: July 2009 through December 2010 Home/Amateur Film Symposium While amateur film and video has blossomed as an academic pursuit recently, finding adherents in cinema studies and cultural studies programs around the world, the multidisciplinary aspects of amateur media scholarship have not been well-served by academia. Academic conferences such as Visible Evidence, the Orphan Film Symposium, and the Northeast Historic Film summer symposium, the annual meetings of the Society of Cinema and Media Studies, the Association of Moving Image Archivists, and local institutional programs and series may touch on noncommercial media, but they do so as part of a larger discussion on media theory, preservation, or filmmaking'in which the unique qualities and concerns of home movies and other amateur films are often largely ignored. At the same time, these conferences and symposia are too narrowly focused on media studies and film history to acknowledge the wide range of uses and effects which amateur films have had, and will continue to have, on fields such as medicine, psychology, cultural history, fashion, education, and so on. The Amateur Film Symposium would bring together leading authorities on uses, scholarship and preservation of amateur moving image media from a wide range of disciplines. It would be the first gathering to address amateur media as a subject in itself, rather than an offshoot of mainstream cinema. This meeting would follow the Orphan Film Symposium model, emphasizing thematic presentations, panels and screenings, and encouraging a productive conversation between academics, archivists and media makers who work with amateur film. This symposium will make a special effort to reach out beyond the archival and film history and film studies communities in order to involve students and scholars in a variety of disciplines. The gathering will also serve as an opportunity to further discussion of new ways of understanding and priorities for preserving and expanding our amateur film heritage in light of cultural and technological developments of the 21st century. The symposium will be held during calendar year 2010 at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus in Culpeper, VA. Deliverables 1) Summary of an understanding of the current state of the field of home movie and video preservation 2) Outline of highest-priority areas/subjects for research and inquiry 3) Sketch for a national plan for preservation including a five-year timetable of proposed programs for archival, technological and curatorial developments 4) Proposals for funding sources of long-term projects involving amateur film and video