For Immediate Use
May 24, 2007
Kelly Graml, kgraml@ucla.edu
310.206.8588
Cathy Renna, cathy@rennacommunications.com
917.757.6123
UCLA and Outfest Receive Unique Collection of Moving Images from Filmmaker and Scholar Alexandra Juhasz for the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation
(Note to Editors: Digital Images Available Upon Request.)
LOS ANGELES, CA – The UCLA Film & Television Archive and Outfest—a leading showcase for diverse and international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film and video—partnered in 2005 to create the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation. The only program of its kind in the world, the Outfest Legacy Project announces a significant addition to its collection: original outtakes and footage from the 1998 documentary Women of Vision: 18 Histories in Feminist Film & Video by filmmaker Alexandra Juhasz.
Women of Vision: 18 Histories in Feminist Film & Video illustrates the history of feminist filmmaking from its beginnings in the 1950s through its apex in the 1970s and on to the 1990s, as told by many of the pioneering artists. The deposited material includes unedited oral history interviews with filmmakers and artists such as Pearl Bowser, Cheryl Dunye, Barbara Hammer, Kate Horsfield, Eve Oishi and Valerie Soe. Juhasz also deposited transcripts, production notes and footage from landmark meetings featuring historic figures in the feminist film and video movement that took place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia.
To celebrate this remarkable deposit, the bimonthly Outfest Legacy Project Screening Series will present "WOMEN OF VISION: 18 HISTORIES IN FEMINIST FILM & VIDEO" on Sunday, June 3 at 7 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood. This special screening of the film will include in-person appearances by Alexandra Juhasz, Susan Mogul, Eve Oishi, Constance Penley and Victoria Vesna, as well as previously unscreened footage. This screening is presented in conjunction with the exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, on view at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Little Tokyo, March 4 – July 16, 2007.
"I had always planned to deposit the raw interview footage from my documentary in an archive where the material could be used by other feminist scholars, artists and activists," said Alexandra Juhasz. "The opportunity to work with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Outfest Legacy Project seemed particularly right for me. The Outfest Legacy Project insures queer mediamakers that the traces of our work, images, efforts and stories will stay available to history."
"Alexandra Juhasz's work not only exemplifies film as art, but also film as a medium of great cultural and social significance," said Robert Rosen, Dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. "The films of the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA are films worth saving."
"With the world's largest collection of accessible LGBT moving images, our strength lies in the exceptional library of unheard stories and forgotten images that make Outfest and this collection unique," said Outfest Legacy Project Manager May Haduong. "We're honored to include Alexandra Juhasz's collection of interviews and footage in the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA."
Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation
A landmark partnership between Outfest and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation was launched in 2005 and is the only program in the world devoted to addressing the crisis in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film preservation. The Outfest Legacy Project has already established the largest publicly accessible collection of LGBT films in the world and created tools to educate filmmakers and the public on film preservation and storage. Project goals also include striking new prints for widespread public exhibition; restoring damaged material to its initial release form; and expanding access of LGBT films and videos to researchers and the public. Outfest recently announced the first two feature films slated to be restored in 2007: Parting Glances (1986), starring Steve Buscemi and the groundbreaking Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1978). www.outfest.org/legacy.html
Outfest Legacy Project Screening Series
The bi-monthly Outfest Legacy Project Screening Series showcases material from the Outfest Legacy Collection at the new Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood (courtyard level of the Hammer Museum). Info and tickets: www.cinema.ucla.edu / 310.206.FILM.
UCLA Film & Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is internationally renowned for its pioneering efforts to rescue, preserve and showcase moving image media, and is dedicated to insuring that the collective visual memory of our time is explored and enjoyed for generations to come. A unique resource for media study, the Archive holds one of the largest collections of media materials in the United States—second only to the Library of the Congress in Washington, D.C.—and the largest of any university in the world.
Outfest
Outfest is a leading showcase for diverse, international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film and video. Since its founding in 1982, Outfest has presented more than 4,000 films to audiences of over half a million people. Its programs include Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival—the oldest continuous film festival in Los Angeles (Outfest 2007: The 25th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival: July 12-23), Outfest Screenwriting Lab, Outfest Wednesdays—the oldest LGBT screening series in the country—and Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival.
