Nitrate Won’t Wait

This study looks at the preservation process: newsreel, television, and color preservation; the often controversial issue of colorization; and commercial film archives. It provides detailed histories of the major players in the preservation battle including the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, the American Film Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the Library of Congress.
This first historical overview of film preservation in the United States is also highly controversial in its exposure and criticism of the politicization of film preservation in recent years, and the rising bureaucracy which has often lost sight of preservation and restoration as the ultimate purpose of film archives.

Film historian Anthony Slide of Studio City, California was hailed by Lillian Gish as “our preeminent historian of the silent film era.” He is the author of numerous works of film scholarship.

Anthony Slide
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 240
Bibliographic Info: photos, appendices, index
Copyright Date: 2000 [1992]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0836-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0457-2
Imprint: McFarland

“a wealth of information…will be a valuable addition”—Choice; “there cannot be a more timely or important book published this year”—Classic Images; “covers the entire spectrum of film preservation beautifully”—Big Reel; “a fascinating study…this is film history brought vividly to life. Superbly told and impeccably researched, this outstanding work is guaranteed to have you totally hooked”—Film Review; “Slide spares no one from the jabs of his rapier…good…a hot topic…a nationally important issue”—Film & History.