CHILI, N.Y. – The Nitrate Picture Show is underway this weekend at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester. The museum currently has one of the largest nitrate film collections in the country.
The collection, which includes nearly 26,000 reels of film, is housed in a non-descript building in the Town of Chili and that’s for good reason. “These films were made between 1895 and 1951 and they are on highly flammable film stock,” explains Deborah Stoiber, the Collections Manager.
There are strict regulations when it comes to how and where nitrate film can be stored. “Our vaults are at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, 30% relative humidity so, it is very cold and dry to keep these films lasting as long as possible,” Stoiber explains. The building also has a sophisticated security and fire prevention system.
The Eastman Museum partners with movie production companies to store treasured original films, “we have the ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘Meet me in St. Louis’, ‘American in Paris’, ‘Olympia’, we have all of those here,” says Stoiber.
The collection also includes films that have been recovered in barns, homes and old movie theaters, including a 1897 film of President William McKinley’s inauguration parade.
Each film kept in the vaults can be 5, 10, or even 15 reels. “We were over 95% full previously so that was one of the big reasons we wanted to expand,” Stoiber says of the museum’s recent $2.5m expansion of the vaults and the building where they are housed.
The folks who work to maintain and grow Eastman’s collection of nitrate films say it’s a labor of love and a passion for the past. “Our job is to keep history alive so that hopefully people can learn from our mistakes, hopefully people can be entertained by Hollywood movies, learn from news reel footage, be interested in history and overall, hopefully become better people,” Stoiber says.
Unfortunately, all of the tickets for this weekend’s Nitrate Picture Show are sold out as it’s become quite the event over the last several years.
Click here to learn more about nitrate films at the museum and get on a mailing list for next year’s festival.
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