Outfest and the UCLA Film & Television Archive 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 is aimed at the growing crisis in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) moving image archiving.  Many of the landmark LGBT films produced over the last 30 years are already in danger of fading away, their original exhibition prints in tatters, their negatives in woeful storage conditions…or even lost.

What if we were unable to share these crucial, life-altering images with future generations?  These moving images represent a profoundly important record of our struggles and joys, a record of where we come from as LGBT people.

OUTFEST LEGACY PROJECT announces upcoming film restoration projects

Restored version of PARTING GLANCES to have its east coast premiere in NYC October 29 [9/17/07]

Outfest presents World Premiere of FULLY RESTORED LANDMARK GAY FILM “PARTING GLANCES" [7/16/07]

GLAAD to Donate Film and Television Collection to the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation at UCLA [7/9/07]

UCLA and Outfest Receive Unique Collection of Moving Images from Filmmaker and Scholar Alexandra Juhasz for the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation [5/24/07]

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives donates rare collection of moving images to Outfest Legacy Project [3/12/07]

Outfest Announces Expansion of Current Services to Coincide with Silver Anniversary [12/14/06]

Acclaimed Director Roland Emmerich Gives $150,000 To Support Gay And Lesbian Film Preservation [1/23/06]

Landmark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Collection Created by UCLA and Outfest [7/11/05]

• To date, the Outfest Legacy Project has received support from the following individuals and foundations:
  
  o David Bohnett, Roland Emmerich, The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation, The Hollywood Reporter Foundation, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The David Bohnett Foundation, The Academy Foundation, the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships, Dean Hansell & Jason Murakawa
  
  
• In 2007, Outfest hired its first Legacy Project Intern, with assistance from the Academy Foundation. This internship has been renewed for 2008 by the Academy Foundation.
  
  
• The Outfest Legacy Project has received coverage from the following outlets: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, KNBC, LA Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Indiewire, Planetout, Gay.com, The Daily Bruin, Turner Classic Movies, The Advocate, here! tv, the New York Blade, DGA Quarterly, Time Out NY and Cinema Journal.
  
  

• Over 5000 titles are in the Outfest Legacy Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. These titles consist of over 5700 items. The largest collection of accessible LGBT moving images, the Outfest Legacy Collection is available to the public, researchers, and scholars for viewing at UCLA.
  
  
• In 2007, the Outfest Legacy Project established the Outfest Legacy Project Screening Series, hosted by UCLA. This bimonthly event will highlight the unique and life-changing moving images from this valuable and one-of-a-kind collection. Screenings take place in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum.
  
  
o Thus far, the Outfest Legacy Project Screening Series has included selections from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives Collection, WOMEN OF VISION: 18 HISTORIES IN FEMINIST FILM AND VIDEO (1998) and Wolfgang Petersen’s THE CONSEQUENCE (1977)


• The Outfest Legacy Project has conducted a nationwide outreach campaign to target academic departments, organizations and conferences, including Women’s Studies departments and LGBT Studies departments. The Outfest Legacy Project has outreached to over 300 academic programs nationwide.
  
  
• The Outfest Legacy Project has integrated Outfest Legacy Collection films in its programs, including VERA (Fusion 2007), PARTING GLANCES (Outfest 2007), WIGSTOCK (Outfest Wednesdays, 2007), DESERT HEARTS (Outfest Wednesdays, 2007), JEWEL AND THE CATCH (Fusion 2006) and SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BATHS (Outfest 2006).

• In Spring 2008, the LGBT Studies Department at UCLA will conduct a course that focuses entirely on the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA. This undergraduate, for-credit academic course will serve to bring the Outfest Legacy Collection into the classroom, furthering awareness of and engagement with LGBT moving image histories.
  
  
• The Outfest Legacy Project has reached out to hundreds of filmmakers though numerous panels and with tools and tips to store, protect, and archive their work.
  
  
• In April of 2006, Outfest, UCLA and AMIA’s LGBT Interest Group conducted the Out of the Closet, Into the Vaults Symposium on the UCLA campus. Over 100 people attended this historic and first-of-its-kind event addressing issues within LGBT film archiving and preservation. Panelists include Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong, Silas Howard, Yvonne Welbon, Orly Ravid, Joseph Hawkins, Silas Howard, Ross Lipman, and Tim Kittleson.

• To date, the Outfest Legacy Collection has collected over 400 film prints and elements from filmmakers, distributors, and collectors such as Jamie Babbitt, Mark Christopher, Debra Chasnoff, Tom Chomont, Nicole Conn, Donna Deitch, Lesli Klainberg, Kate Millet, Jenni Olson, GLAAD, Kino, Frameline Distribution and Strand Releasing.
  
  
• At Outfest’s 25th Anniversary in 2007, Outfest presented its first feature film restoration - Bill Sherwood’s PARTING GLANCES (1986). The film screened to a sold-out audience at the Director’s Guild of America, with cast members Steve Buscemi, Kathy Kinney, Richard Ganoung and John Bolger in attendance.
  
  
• Our 2009 slate for restoration work is comprised of two important short films. They are the rare 1965 film QUEENS AT HEART about female transsexuals and CHOOSING CHILDREN, Kim Klausner and Academy Award winning director Debra Chasnoff’s 1984 documentary about lesbian parenting.
  
  
• In 2008, the Outfest Legacy Project will restore the groundbreaking film by the Mariposa Group and about gay and lesbian lives, WORD IS OUT: STORIES FROM SOME OF OUR LIVES (1978).
  
  
• In 2007, BAVC, the Bay Area Video Coalition, granted Outfest and UCLA $30,000 of in-kind video restoration work. This grant will be used to restore roughly 60 hours of original interviews and footage in the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives collection which has a home in the Outfest Legacy Collection at UCLA.
  
  
• The Outfest Legacy Project’s largest deposit to date is from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the largest ongoing LGBT organization in the Western Hemisphere.
  
  
• The first Outfest Legacy Project preservation was a video preservation of footage of a 1977 poetry reading benefit for Gay Sunshine Press, featuring Allen Ginsberg. From the collection of deposited ONE material, this footage was on half-inch open reel tapes and was not viewable until preservation was completed on the tapes. Because of its deteriorated condition, the Legacy Project baked the tapes—a process that temporarily renders the image salvageable—and transferred and preserved this noteworthy material to a digital medium.

Outfest Legacy Project
3470 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1022
Los Angeles, CA 90010
213.480.7096 voice
213.480.7099 fax

legacyproject@outfest.org

John Cooper, Sundance
Robert Hawk
May Haduong
Marcus Hu, Strand Releasing
Jim Hubbard, MIX NYC
Shannon Kelley, Morelia International Film Festival
Jonathan King, Participant Media
John Kirk
Lynne Kirste, Academy Film Archive
Tim Kittleson
Jenni Olson, Wolfe Releasing
B. Ruby Rich
Robert Rosen, UCLA School of Theatre, Film & Television
Mike Thomas
Yvonne Welbon, Sisters in Cinema
Todd Wiener, UCLA Film & Television Archive