Personal reflections from a Selznick School of Film Preservation graduate
It feels like we came to the George Eastman Museum just yesterday but been connected to this institution for eons. It’s been almost 10 months since we started the program at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the museum but that overwhelming feeling of being here for the first time is still fresh as a rose. I would have thought such feelings may have waned in such a substantial amount of time…
In a relatively short span, we were given a taste of various domains within the moving image archives. The course ensures conducive learning environment through continuous comprehensive insights into the interdisciplinary areas within the field through lectures from the accomplished staff, weekly rotations with various subsections of the Moving Image Department at the museum, field trips to other institutions, exceptionally well-curated screenings at the Dryden Theatre devoted to exhibiting all films in their original format and numerous preservation screenings. All of these distinctive courses aided us in our goal of becoming accomplished audio-visual archivist.
I traced backwards and tried to figure out what really drew me to this field. I think it’s ultimately the parallels’ with life more than anything else. I came to the museum with a resolution to become a well-informed practitioner of cinematic archival preservation and film appreciation, by studying and practicing archival theory from a technical, management and legal perspective. I have to admit that I got much more than I ever anticipated. Importantly, I know more about myself than before. As a contemplative and self reflective person, I cannot ask for anything more.
This has been the most productive year of my life. I received real education for the first time. The environment here has nurtured my curiosity and driven me to know more in an inimitable way. At the same time, I learnt to be patient wait with the unknowns and earn the answers with the self-driven efforts. This has opened new doors for me: the solid foundation at the school helped me swim through the infinite pool of questions; questions that make life truthful, purposeful, meaningful, and redeeming. Not in just the search of answers but bringing them up and putting them out for consideration. Knowing the unknown in a known way and unknown in a known way has been a soul enriching process.
I will share a short anecdote that is personal to me and which would not have been possible without the association with George Eastman Museum. As a studious teenager, I stumbled onto The (Richard) Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman was the first person in my life that shaped my curiosity. Ever since then, I envisioned a visit to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) at some point of time to have a closer look at his life. When I was in Los Angeles during Spring Break, I requested access to the Caltech Archives to access some of his correspondences. They agreed to do on an ultra-short notice. Importantly, they let me access few of the original correspondences, as they were aware of the capabilities of archivist to deal gently with such material. This small pleasure of finding things out on a personal level would not have been achievable, had I not been a student of the Selznick School.
Literally and metaphorically, I have experienced the shortest day of my life during limited stay in Rochester. The longest day of this year coincides with the last day of our school; a day before graduation. How soulfully apt! In these final days, I cannot help but connect the songs that I hear to find right words for this inarticulate rush of chaotic feelings. I feel compelled to borrow from Eddie Vedder’s “No Ceiling”:
Sure as I am breathing
Sure as I’m sad
I’ll keep this wisdom in my flesh
I leave here believing more than I had…
In retrospect, I see this program as an exhilarating undertaking to prepare me for the challenges of the unchartered waters this ever-changing technological millennium has to pose. I firmly believe there is a whole new spectrum of cinematic work lurking out in the dark, waiting to be found and shared, that will indisputably unlock new realms of current understandings and enrich the overall community. The Selznick School has been instrumental in imparting this wisdom to me, particularly through the relationships and interactions I had with the school’s esteemed faculty and my academic cohorts.
In final endeavour to articulate it all, my experience at the George Eastman Museum has equipped me to uphold my responsibilities as an archival researcher to discover, deconstruct as an engineer and philosopher, reconstruct meaning(s) as an objective archivist as and relish the works as a cinéaste.
Author Bio: A perennial learner and a cinéaste at heart and soul, Amit was raised in the historical city of Aurangabad, India. He graduated from College of Engineering, Pune and briefly worked as an Aerospace Quality Control Engineer. His burning desire to be actively associated with cinema led to an internship at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). To take his zeal and proficiency to an unparalleled level, he arrived at the Selznick School.
