The Southern Media Archive received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve the home movie collection of the late Mississippi artist Emma Knowlton Lytle. Many Mississippians are familiar with Raisin’ Cotton, Lytle’s film about farming in the pre-War World II Delta. In 1997, the Archive received an award from the Women’s Film Preservation Foundation in New York to preserve Raisin' Cotton. This current grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation in California will help preserve another 17 reels of Lytle’s home movie collection.

Preserving 8mm home movie film is a tricky business as the format no longer exists. Instead of transferring the deteriorating 8mm film to fresh 8mm film, the original 8mm footage must be optically enlarged and transferred to 16mm film. The finished preservation package will include a 16mm negative, a 16mm print, broadcast quality videotapes, and VHS viewing tapes.

Because 8mm preservation work is uncommon, very few production facilities have the right equipment or personnel to handle the job. Fortunately, the film laboratories of the Library of Congress and the National Archives of Canada have agreed to do the work. These institutions rarely accept outside work into their laboratories. Acceptance of the Lytle footage testifies to its historical significance and to the value of home movie film to the historical record.

The preserved Lytle film footage will be shown at the Small Format Film Symposium in Portland, Oregon, in 2001.

Karen Glynn