2024 Preservation Access Program
Each year, our Preservation team, through the Preservation Access Program (PAP), accepts a select number of projects to digitize and preserve at a reduced rate.
We’re excited to announce this year’s list of PAP participants:
World Arts West
- Founded in 1978, World Arts West is the nationally recognized leader in advocating for cultural arts communities. Serving the largest culturally-specific artist dance and music network in the United States, we are a wraparound cultural artist service provider, a hub for comprehensive capacity-building artist services for the San Francisco Bay Area cultural artist community.
- Media: 30 Betacam recordings of SF Ethnic Dance Festivals 1998-2001 from the Michael Rohde collection
Manuel Gonzalez
- Produced Lo Que Es Hayward cable television weekly live call-in show with/for East Bay’s Chicano communities. Lo Que Es recorded local performances, political events, interviews and workshops showing collaborations combining a unique wave of musicians from Latin America, African American choreographers, Cuban filmmakers and social activists including Cesar Chavez, Olga Talamantes and Dennis Banks.
- Media: 30 1/2″ open reel and Umatic video moments captured in the 70’s by Bay Area based BIPOC cultural workers
Biophilia Films
- The sole purpose of Biophilia Films is to make THE ANIMATED MIND OF OLIVER SACKS, a feature length documentary film. THE ANIMATED MIND OF OLIVER SACKS is a journey into the fantastical mind and ground-breaking work of the beloved neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks, one of the most creative and influential thinkers of our time who helped found the modern neurodiversity movement.
- Media: 10-15 1/2″ open reels shot by Dr. Oliver Sacks in the 1970s
Laurie Coyle
- The broad history of the “Nakba” expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 and the Palestinian refugee diaspora, as told by the Elias Hakim and family. Powerful memories of childhood, the Muslim-Christian uprising against the British in the 1930s, his family’s flight, his job for UNRWA helping refugees, immigration to America, and struggle to adapt to a new life where even the mention of “Palestine” is profoundly uncomfortable for Americans.
- Media: 30 DV tapes of oral histories and verite.
Letty Moran
- Independent documentary of Caribbean musical culture in the Bay Area in the 1990s captures a vibrant tapestry, revealing the fusion of diverse Caribbean rhythms, showcasing how musicians shaped a unique Bay Area sound. The intertwining of cultural elements, from soca to reggae, not only reflects the diasporic experience but also highlights the role of music as a cultural bridge.
- Media: 25 Umatic tapes of performances and interviews.
Central Maine Power Music Company
- Experimental audio and waveform feedback manipulation performed as “Cosmic Resonance” selling out the Boston Hayden Planetarium on many occasions. Audio is generated by an ensemble of invented instruments called Steel Cellos and incorporated into planetarium effects.
This is all thanks to generous grants from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). NEA funding also supports BAVC Media’s efforts to advance audiovisual preservation practice, theory, and accessibility based on new and innovative developments in the field. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to reach out to us directly at preservation@bavc.org.
