Film History Seminar: The National Film Registry and The Practice of Film History

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This seminar will be the first known university course to focus solely on the U.S. National Film Registry. Seminar participants will learn about the origin and development of legislation designed to protect, promote, and celebrate American films. Students will study the selection process by which films are added to the registry list, and meet with members of the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation, and travel to California film archives and screening venues screening archival films. Individual projects emerging from this seminar will develop research and writing related to films already named to the registry or deserving films as yet unnamed. Readings for this seminar will be drawn from scholarship on the practice of film history, film and media preservation and restoration, film curation and exhibition.