Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
34 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2018 An impressive array of post-production equipment, mementos, pictures and technical tomes from over a century of filmmaking and editing is now on display in rooms dedicated to the archive. Guild President Alan Heim, ACE, tells CineMontage that when the law offices occupying the space for 20 years moved out in May, the Board of Directors decided to put the archive exhibit there. "It's important that we retain and make visible the history of our craft," Heim states. "Our field is only about 100 years old — and so much is already lost." "Creating a space where the Guild can showcase the history of post-production has been a true passion project of Archive and History Committee chair Sharon Smith Holley," says Guild National Executive Director Cathy Repola. "I am glad we were finally able to allocate some space in the building for all of this wonderful memorabilia." Following the General Membership Meeting held in the Dede Allen Seminar Room last October, the 100-plus members who attended were invited across the lobby to the first official open house for the archive, a large-scale, decade-long effort to collect and exhibit the materials and stories of post-production crafts. Holley was gratified by the reactions to the archive from those attending the meeting. "When members who have had personal experience with the equipment share their stories, the room really comes alive," she explains. Over the past 10 years, Holley, with the committee and its volunteers, has collected a great wealth of materials that is stored in the Guild's basement and offsite. She plans to rotate exhibits each year to provide hands-on insight into the evolution of film editing — the only moviemaking craft originating directly from the film medium itself. Along with exhibition space, the remodeling of the old offices included designing a studio for shooting extensive interviews of Guild members of all classifications to document a personal history of the industry through their working experiences. Another room houses an Avid to edit these visual oral histories for a major component of the archive: the Legacy Collection. When CineMontage visited the Guild Archive to speak with Holley, retired sound editor and volunteer Lou Kleinman was Below: Picture editor Anne V. Coates being interviewed in 2014 for the Guild Archive's Legacy Collection of visual oral histories. Courtesy of Editors Guild Archive Bottom: Guild archivist Sharon Smith Holley, second from right, with picture editor Stephen Rivkin, left, picture editor Randy Roberts and his partner Heidi Scharfe. in 2014, Rivkin interviewed Roberts, who passed away less than a year later, for a visual oral history. Courtesy of Editors Guild Archive Opposite: A black upright Moviola, which began being used in the 1920s. This piece was donated by the American Cinema Editors when the organization recently moved offices.