The National Film Preservation Foundation is a non-profit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. They support activities nationwide that preserve American films and improve film access for study, education, and exhibition.
The process of the Board began in 1992, when Congress asked the Librarian of Congress to assess the state of film preservation. The report issued the next year under the direction of National Film Preservation Board, alerted Congress that motion pictures were disintegrating faster than archives could save them! The films most at risk were documentaries, silent-era films, newsreels, historically significant home movies, avant-garde works, industrials, and independent films-not the Hollywood sound features that had become synonymous with American film. After 4 years of this process and research the NFPF was founded in 1996.
On their web site: http://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/why-preserve-film
You can find helpful documents about preservation Basics:
- Nitrate Degradation
- Color Dye Fading
- Vinegar Syndrome
- Good Storage Practice
We have had many new clients in the past that were referred to us while reading the film-preservation-guide, since they knew that to be able to preserve for long-time storage they only needed to do this process once with the best cans that exist.. STiL polypropylene film containers, the ones that have the top quality vented design! This document is really good read and gives you all the information you need.