S6.3: Shelley Stamp: Cinema Preservation, Access and Renegotiating Women’s Representation in Silent Film

While this episode was recorded over a year ago, it is just as relevant now (if not moreso). I am honored to welcome the brilliant and wonderful Professor Shelley Stamp to Archivist’s Alley. A former professor of mine at UC Santa Cruz, she has been a major inspiration and she remains one of my mentors. Please join us as we discuss the intricacies of silent film restoration, the history of women in film, media access and much more!

As usual, bio is below the podcast link. Links to various subjects from our conversation are embedded in the bio so be sure to click on those and check’em out!!

Shelley Stamp is author of the award-winning books Lois Weber in Early
Hollywood
and Movie Struck Girls, and curator of the award-winning disc set Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers.  She is Founding Editor of the journal Feminist Media Histories and editor of the Feminist Media Histories book series published by the University of California Press. Stamp is Professor of Film + Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has twice won the Excellence in Teaching Award and currently holds the Presidential Chair.

S4.8: Candace Ming: Immediate Access, Weird Collectors, and the Necessity of Personal Time

As usual these days, I’m behind. I keep feeling like I’m going to catch up with myself and the podcast and maybe I will but it seems like life and this horrible pandemic and Other Stuff keep coming up.

But I want to reiterate that this podcast is still important to me and I am still extremely dedicated to it, even in the middle of whatever chaos is happening.
As usual, thank you for your patience and continued listening. I believe in you, these guests, and every conversation and issue that we discuss. It’s just that whole…life thing, amirite?

THAT SAID, I want to bring you an incredible conversation with an invaluable member of our archiving and preservation community, Candace Ming. When I first met them, I was so excited! To me, just hearing the name “Candace Ming” attached was legendary- they had always felt like superstar-tier. And then I got to hang out with them at an AMIA conference and it was so cool! I just felt like a million bucks!

Recording this was an absolute blast. And I really hope that you enjoy it and get as much out of it as I did. Candace is authentically one of the best humans with some GREAT things to say.

Two quick things:
-this was recorded before the elections so some of the conversation is a *wee* bit dated. This is what happens when life (my life) gets in the way of my podcast and a brilliant conversation. Again- apologies all around.
– please note that I used the pronouns “her/she” in the introduction and beginning of the show. These are not Candace’s preferred pronouns. The correct ones are they/them and those should be used going forward.

And now…Please enjoy the amazing Candace Ming on Archivist’s Alley! As usual, bio and copious links are below the podcast!

Candace Ming is the Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.  They are a graduate of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. They have a wealth of experience as an archivist (Carnegie Hall Archives, Alaska Film Archives, Missouri History Museum) and as a film projectionist (Landmark Theaters in their native St. Louis). They are the former Project Manager/Archivist of the South Side Home Movie Project where they were responsible for digitizing and preserving all home movies donated to the SSHMP and also conducted community outreach. They are on the Board of Directors for the Center for Home Movies and the Association of Moving Image Archivists. they also serve as Secretary for the International Association of Audiovisual Archives Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

LINKS! CHECK ‘EM OUT!!!


https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAAHC.SC.0001?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=great+migration&i=0


https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/great-migration-home-movie-projecthttps://www.centerforhomemovies.org/


https://sshmp.uchicago.edu/https://sshmpportal.uchicago.edu/

S4.7: Ferrin Evans : Queer Loss, Marginalized Experiences and Demanding a Seat at the Table

Once again, I must apologize for the long period it has been between recording this and it going live.
I fear that the entirety of Season 4 is going to have some…bumps…in it because there were many moments in the last 6 months where I did not feel comfortable posting a new episode and having any attention taken away from a) what was going on in the news (the protests, etc) or b) lessen the wonderful words of my guests. So you’ll have to just sorta deal with the fact that some of the topics on here are a little dated but it’s interesting to consider them in light of what then occurred AFTER this conversation, for better or worse.
Whatever life is, it is far from boring….

I will also apologize for myself. I got far too excited during this podcast episode and I think I spoke over Ferrin too much and I regret that because while editing it, I realized that there was so much more I wanted to know about and wanted to ask him but I was having such a good time with the kind of energy that he exudes, even over a vocal virtual communication system that I almost forgot what we were there for.
I will have him on again and I promise to be a much better listener next time. Wow am I embarrassed! But it just goes to show Ferrin’s charisma and brilliance. What an incredible human being. I hope you all can get a feel for the groundbreaking work he is doing, the passion he has for life and living and the way he conquers his (and the) world. It’s stunning. Like him.

As usual, bio and links under the podcast!

Ferrin Evans is a Master of Information candidate at the University of Toronto.  He currently has two media archiving contracts at the university: at the Media Commons Archive and at the Sexual Representation Collection.  In the past, he has worked with the Gay Archives of Quebec, Inside Out Toronto, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Cinema Politica, and the MIX New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, where he served on the Board of Directors.  He is currently completing an oral history-centered thesis about risk, desire, and loss on Fire Island during COVID-19.

LINKS:

Article related to my most current media archival work at University of Toronto:http://sds.utoronto.ca/news/new-acquisitions-at-the-sexual-representation-collection/
SAA Community Reflection on Black Lives and Archives (June 2020):https://www.pathlms.com/saa/events/1996/video_presentations/162192
“Treat Them with the Reverence of Archivists”: Records Work, Grief Work, and Relationship Work in the Archiveshttps://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13699

S4.6: Shannon Devlin: Emotional Investments, Good Relationships & the Trouble With Graduation

My utmost apologies for the lengthy time between last podcast release and this one. Things have been a little busy and then just a little wonky around here. I’m sure that everyone can understand that, considering the Pandemic is pretty much making our lives which may not have been stable before…very much less so.

However, I am quite sorry to any listeners who like listening regularly if they missed having stable show “ness” and to the guests whose episodes I recorded before my brief few week break.

However, now I’m back in action and diving right in with my wonderful, talented and eloquent friend Shannon. I wish so much I could give her a hug right now. She’s so sweet and just has the best energy. I think you will hear it in our conversation. What a great asset to media archives and preservation and (for me personally) what a great pal to have!

As usual, here’s the podcast, and bio and cool links are below! Check out those links!

Shannon Devlin (she/they), is a film and media archivist, and recent graduate of the Master of Library Science program at Indiana University. While there she specialized in Archives and Records Management, and worked both for the Indiana University Moving Image Archive as well as for the Mass Digitization Preservation Initiative as an assistant to the Audiovisual Specialist. She was the 2019 Roselani Media Preservation Intern at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu’s ‘Ulu’ulu Moving Image Archive, and is currently working in the film lab at Memnon Archiving Services as well as continuing her role at the Indiana University Moving Image Archive.

Links:

IU Moving Image Archive

MDPI

Memnon @ IU

‘Ulu’ulu

S4.5: Miranda Barnewall: Advocacy, Career Examinations and Material Importance

I loved speaking to Miranda. She’s an absolute jem. And I believe that the route that she’s taking is one that will revolutionize the way the archives/information studies field interacts with its staff and employers.

Pairing social work concerns with preservation is the what we should be going for. For us to look towards care and compassion for those who are doing the work alongside WORKING is (in my mind) the dream.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. Miranda is a really important woman with many critically important observations and experiences. As usual, the bio is right under the podcast!

Miranda Barnewall is a film archivist who has an equal passion for the films she preserves and the people who work alongside her. She received a BA in Film Studies from THE™ Ohio State University in 2016 and a certificate in Film Preservation from The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2017. Miranda’s interest lies in how to strengthen the film archiving field’s infrastructure, advocating for archivists, and how to make film archiving a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive field. While movies became her passion in high school, Miranda rediscovered her first love of reading once she had her first grown-up job. During her free time, she is most likely reading one of the twelve books piled next to her or scrolling through Goodreads adding another book to her to-read list.