Documentary filmmakers Ken Burns, Michael Moore, Patricio Guzmán, and David Haugland during the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Photos by Jill Orschel
By the Archives team
What better way to celebrate American Archives Month than to highlight our recent photo digitization project that was made possible through a grant from the Utah State Historical Records Advisory Board (USHRAB) and National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Digitization opens up so many possibilities for access and discovery, so we’re delighted to share a selection of newly digitized gems as well as a peek into the process involved in making them available.
Way back when in the analog days, after photographers covered Festival events, they would process all the 35mm film rolls they used and print contact sheets as a quick way to review all the photo coverage. The photographer along with Festival staff would review the contact sheets and choose select photos for printing. Over the years, the photos from each Festival were organized into binders, which are housed in the Institute Archives. It wasn’t until 2003 that our photography coverage went digital, so we access these binders in the archives regularly.
Documentary filmmakers and producers discuss their projects at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival: Liz Garbus and Stephen Stack (“The Farm”), Melanie Judd and Julia Loktev (“Moment of Impact”), Karen Bernstein and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (“Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart”), Penny Stankiewicz and Katharina Otto-Bernstein (“Beautopia”), and Iara Lee and George Gund (“Modulations”). Photos by Sandria Miller
When funding allows, we’ve chipped away at digitizing Festival and Lab photography and luckily have made significant progress over the last 15 years. We’re close to closing the gap between our analog and digital photo coverage and are now focused on 1998–2002. The USHRAB and NHPRC grant specifically supports the digitization of photo elements from the 1998 and 1999 Festivals and Labs, which accounts for over 3,000 photos, contact sheets, slides, and negatives. We work closely with the University of Utah’s Marriott Library Digitization Services team who carefully review and scan each photo element. The team then organizes the photos by year, event, and photographer and once we receive the newly digitized files, we review, keyword, and prepare them to be imported into our digital asset management system (DAM). The whole process can take months and even years with a small team, but it is well worth the time and effort when it allows us to discover and explore untold or lesser known stories and more easily share the Institute’s history.
The latest batch of scanned photos from the Digitization Services team included coverage from the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. In honor of Doctober, we went searching for photos of documentary filmmakers and were excited to find so many images of quintessential directors including Ken Burns, Liz Garbus, Patricio Guzmán, Barbara Kopple, Anne Makepeace, Michael Moore, and Alanis Obomsawin among others. Besides screening their latest films, they also participated in various events, including a documentary filmmaker panel.
Without the USHRAB and NHPRC grant, we would have to flip through pages of the 1998 Festival photo binders in search of filmmakers and stories to highlight, but instead we easily reviewed hundreds of digitized photos and contact sheets to share some favorites with you.
We hope you enjoy a little glimpse at the 1998 Festival as we wrap up Archives Month and Doctober!
Documentary filmmakers David Haugland, Alanis Obomsawin, and Barbara Kopple attend a panel at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Ken Regan
Anne Makepeace and another Festival attendee share a moment at Festival. Photos by Sandria Miller
Liz Garbus and Jonathan Stack accepting the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary for “The Farm.” Photo by Ken Regan
Documentary filmmakers Nick Broomfield, Renate Sachse, Patricio Guzmán, and Ken Burns during a panel at the 1998 Festival. Photo by Ken Regan
