The Museum of Modern Art’s film and media archive now comprises more than 23,000 titles. With the 1996 opening of the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center in Hamlin, Pennsylvania, the Museum, for the first time in its history, owns and operates a state-of-the-art facility for the storage of its moving-image treasures. This two-building complex, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, affords the Department of Film and Media sufficient space and a controlled environment in which to preserve those materials deemed essential to cinema history. This series illustrates the enormous diversity of the film and video collection, with classic Hollywood features, independent works that explore social issues, foreign films that examine cultural values not unlike our own, animation created by computer and by hand, and finally, the unique madness of John Waters’s Pink Flamingos.
Organized by Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media.