'Metropolis' Lost and Found

This weekend, the Detroit Film Theater (DFT) debuted its first of several showings of the classic silent film Metropolis. This groundbreaking work, directed by the prolific Fritz Lang, has influenced and inspired countless directors. Why then has it taken more than 80 years for this masterpiece to be seen in anything close to its original form? The simple answer is that no one bothered to save the original. Up until 2008, it was thought that the complete version of the film was lost forever. Thanks to the hard work of some talented archivists and film preservationists, and a few lucky breaks, Metropolis can be seen today more or less the way Fritz Lang intended it to be seen. The history of how Metropolis was nearly lost and later miraculously found again is a fascinating lesson in the importance of archiving cultural materials.

For those unfamiliar with the film, here is a synopsis of the plot: Sometime in the indeterminate future, the great industrialist Joh Fredersen has founded and built the teeming city of Metropolis. (It is suggested that the city is of such a scale that it would dwarf even today’s vast mega-cities.) The city is kept running by an army of workers who live deep below the city in a subterranean city of their own. In contrast, the managing class of Metropolis lives the high life in glittering skyscrapers. One day, Joh’s son Freder sees a beautiful girl from the working class and follows her to the lower levels. There, he witnesses some workers being killed when a machine explodes and is horrified. Freder is determined to see how the workers really live and to help them ease their burden. What follows is an exciting series of events in which a religious prophet (the girl he followed), an evil robot clone, a mad scientist, and rioting workers do battle and wreck havoc on the streets of the city. Here is a video of the trailer for the latest restored version.

It is easy to see how complex themes such as the exploitation of workers, labor riots, and religious mysticism would have made censors nervous at the time. There are also a few scenes that contain sexual content that would have been considered quite racy back then. After the film premiered in Berlin in January, 1927, the 153 minute film was cut substantially. Paramount, the U.S. distributor of the film, cut nearly 40 minutes from the film. UFA, the German film studio who produced the film, was nearly bankrupted by the cost of Metropolis, which was one of the most elaborate and expensive films ever made, and they were desperate to make back some of their money. Therefore they made the same cuts as Paramount, hoping to please audiences and avoid losing any more money. One of the film’s restorers, Marin Koerber, says that the editors “turned it into more of a Frankenstein story and softened the film’s Christian themes.” Unfortunately, in their haste to get the film into circulation quickly, the cuts were made to the original negatives and no one bothered to preserve a complete version of the film.

With the benefit of hindsight, many film buffs industry experts realized the egregious way in which Metropolis had been treated and sought to restore to classic film to its former glory. After World War II, a few copies of the film resided in East Germany’s Staatliches Filmarchiv where a few young archivists sought to patch the original film back together. Wolfgang Klaue, an archivist who worked there for nearly 30 years detailed Ekkehard Jahnke’s attempt to restore the film: “[He] undertook the first reconstruction/restoration of Metropolis. The tools for a job of this kind had not yet been developed. When comparing the different materials from other archives, he had questions that neither he nor any of his colleagues could answer.” This first restoration premiered at the International Federation of Film Archives’ 1972 conference in Bucharest but it did not receive much attention.

The most complete version of the movie, until recently, was the definitive 2001 restoration by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving German cinema for posterity. This version was 124 minutes long, still 29 minutes shorter than the complete version. In a stroke of good luck, a complete 16mm copy of the original 35mm nitrate print was discovered in the archives of the Museo del Cine Pablo C. Ducrós Hicken in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is believed that this copy was made by an Argentine film distributor who saw the movie at the 1927 premiere and took it back with him to Argentina. The copy ended up in the hands of a private collector and was donated to the museum in 1992, where it sat until it was found two years ago. The copy wasn’t in great shape but film restorers were able to use it to create a version that runs for 147 minutes, meaning that only six minutes of the original are still missing. Thanks to this lucky break, audiences can now enjoy Metroplois more or less as Fritz Lang intended it to be seen.

Movie lovers may have gotten lucky when it comes to Metropolis but countless other films have been lost forever due to poor archiving practices. Luke McKernan, of the Centre for British Film and Television Studies, discusses the case of a 1912 film called The Coronation Durbar at Delhi, which was one of the first color films ever produced: “The Delhi Durbar film was made over twenty years before any national film archive had been established, and the company that made it and most of its Kinemacolor productions were lost to history, neglected or destroyed once they became of no financial value.” This has been the case of numerous early films. They were made, shown to a few audiences, and then discarded once their producers could no longer sell it. No one thought to take the expense to save these films and there was no real system in place to do so even if the filmmakers wanted to do this.

In the U.S. the Library of Congress maintains the Moving Image Collections and runs the National Film Preservation Board. In Germany, the Bundesfilmarchiv, which has been instrumental in restoring Metropolis, protects Germany’s rich national cinema. Britain actually has four national film archives. Archiving a nation’s films is as important as archiving any other works of art in that they are an integral part of the national culture and collective memory. Though many early films have been lost, passionate archivists have helped protect many old films and have restored some of those that were thought lost forever.


References:

Back to the Future: Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' Over Time Retrieved June 14, 2010, from http://www.filmportal.de/df/e9/Artikel,,,,,,,,EFA4FC6971A20FE7E03053D50B373B0A,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html

Goldman, A. J. (2010, February 19). Metropolis Now Wall Street Journal Retrieved June 14, 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069383586138138.html

Klaue, W. (2006). Every Film an Adventure Journal of Film Preservation (72).

McKernan, L. A Short History of Film Archiving Centre for British Film and Television Studies Retrieved June 14, 2010, from http://www.bftv.ac.uk/events/archhist.htm

METROPOLIS -Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version 2001. (2001, May 15, 2008). UNESCO Scientific and Cultural Organization Retrieved June 14, 2010, from http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23221&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Metropolis (1927). IMDB.com.

National Film Preservation Board: Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers. (2010, April 27). Retrieved June 14, 2010, from http://www.loc.gov/film/arch.html

The Future of Library of Michigan Collections

First, Michigan’s Department of History, Arts, and Libraries. Now, part of the Library of Michigan’s genealogy collection? What does this mean for our historical documents?

Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm’s July 2009 announcement that she was issuing an executive order cutting the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, due to budget concerns, caused much of a stir among librarians and other individuals. The order transferred the Library of Michigan and State Librarian to the Department of Education, the State Records Management Program to the Department of Management and Records, and the State Archives Program and related historical preservation programs to the Department of Natural Resources, to name a few. The changes sparked petitions, protest rallies, and even a state Senate hearing. The Michigan Library Association issued a statement opposing the order, saying it “dismantles library collections without a plan or any better alternative.” Ironically, as the state has more than a $2 billion deficit, the cuts have only saved $2 million in the first year. Furthermore, Granholm’s executive order gave permission to the Department of Education to either eliminate circulation of all Michigan and non-Michigan genealogy collections or transfer them to another institution.

However, this order was given almost a year ago, and I was curious to know how the split departments were doing, particularly the Library of Michigan. As an archival student, it really concerned me that the future of the state archives were up in the air, and that huge, historical collections could be transferred to another location at any time. What kind of locations could these archives be transferred to? What if they were sold to a private party that did not allow public access? Could the collections be destroyed? Needless to say, I did some research on the topic and some of my questions have been answered (while others have not).

On February 12, 2010, the Michigan Genealogical Council received a letter from the Department of Education, stating that they are currently identifying agencies or organizations outside of the state government, but located in Michigan, to manage and administer the Michigan Genealogy Collection that is currently housed in the Library of Michigan. The same goes for the Regional Federal Depository Program and the Federal Documents Collection. Furthermore, the General Main, Dewey, and Reference Collections will be given to other Michigan libraries to supplement their collections. All of this dismantling is expected to be accomplished no later than October 1, 2011.

A few days later, on February 17, 2010, the President of the Michigan Genealogical Council, Cynthia Grostick, met with State Librarian, Nancy Robertson, to discuss the future of the Library of Michigan. In general, the Library will be facing a 23% decrease in funding this year and be forced to lay off 13 employees by October 1^st. Interestingly, the library had 100 staff members at its height, and will now be down to 30 staff members on October 1^st. As far as archives are concerned, the library has decided to find a new home for the non-Michigan genealogy collections and federal documents outside of the state government.

Recently, on June 1, 2010, the Department of Education, and both Michigan Senate and House approved a bill (Senate bill No. 1154 – Section 803) that had both positive and negative consequences for Library of Michigan activists. The bill says that the library shall keep all collections that they already own and maintain, for at least another year. However, the bill also says that the library will not be held responsible for making the non-Michigan genealogy and the Federal Documents collections accessible to the public. In other words, the bill ordered the Library of Michigan to box-up and store these collections, if they do not have the money to maintain it for public access.

So what exactly does this mean for these two collections and for the rest of the archival collections, in general? If the library feels that they do not have the proper funds to maintain some of the collections, which they have already hinted at, these collections will be put in storage until the Michigan economy improves. Although many do not want these collections to be sold or given to other institutions, this scenario may even be worse. The Library of Michigan’s non-Michigan genealogy collection is an esteemed gathering of genealogy resources that brings researchers to the library from around the country each year. What if the financial decline from this loss of tourism hurts more than the savings of not having to maintain this collection? What if the state never again feels financially stable enough to make the maintenance of these records a priority? These thousands of dollars in resources could gather dust for ages.

Which do you think is worse – sending these collections to a non-governmental institution or put them away in storage? Do you think there is a better idea available for these records? And why is it that most of people involved in these historical decisions have absolutely no archival, historical, or librarian background?

References

Fitzpatrick, S. (2009, October). Michigan Librarians Speak Out; Governor Granholm Listens. American Libraries, 40(10), 34-35. Retrieved June 14, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1872251321).

Grostick, C. (2010, February 12). Message posted to http://www.mimgc.org/LOM.html

Grostick, C. (2010, February 21). Message posted to http://www.mimgc.org/LOM.html

Grostick, C. (2010, March 28). Message posted to http://www.mimgc.org/LOM.html

MLA Board of Directors (2009, July 31). MLA position statement on executive order no. 2009-36 abolishing the Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.martinwaymire.com/MLAEO200936PositionStatement.pdf

Michigan Department of Education (2010, February 12). Library of Michigan plan. Retrieved from http://www.mimgc.org/pdf/Library_of_Michigan_Plan.pdf

Michigan House (2010). House substitute for Senate bill no. 1154. Retrieved from http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2009-2010/billengrossed/Senate/pdf/2010SEBH-1154.pdf

Michigan Senate (2010). Substitute for Senate bill no. 1154. Retrieved from http://www.legislature.mi.gov/ documents/2009-2010/billengrossed/Senate/pdf/2010SEBS-1154.pdf

Michigan Senate (2009). Abolish Dept. of History, Arts, and Lib., S.B. 503-527: Committee summary. Retrieved from http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/20092010/billanalysis/Senate/pdf/2009-SFA-0503-S.pdf

Oder, N. (2009, July 14). Michigan governor proposing killing Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, dropping State Librarian. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6670908.html

Tweets to Be Stored in the Library of Congress, Should They?

It is no secret that I love Twitter. I’m connected to it with my phone, and my laptop is never off, so if you consider that I sleep about nine hours a night, that is fifteen hours a day where I am constantly mashing on keys and interacting with people on the Internet. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give this a second thought, but with the announcement that the Library of Congress has begun to archive tweets, I have started putting serious consideration into whether or not this plan actually offers any value to the future.

According to Matt Raymond, the “Tweeter-in-Chief” of the Library of Congress, over 55 million tweets a day, billions over months, are being digitally archived. This translates into roughly 1,135 feet of stacked CD-ROMs.

For a sense of perspective, we’ll break down some numbers of both me and a few friends who use the service and are fairly active users of Twitter. I created my account in April of 2008 and since then have produced over 13,000 tweets or roughly 18 tweets a day. Compare that to Chris, a friend who lives in Texas and lives on his cell phone, registered his account in July of 2008 and currently has 27,000 tweets, an average of 37 tweets a day. On the other hand, my pal Tyler has had his account for about a year now and only has constructed 2,100 tweets, five a day. At our most active, it could be said we are still barely contributing to the daily record.

So with such a high amount of data being produced globally by users, what is the point of archiving at it all? There may not be an immediate answer, but each day, studies are being produced that highlight the long term pros of preserving this social record.

The primary benefit appears to be in the balanced population of its users. According to a study produced by Ryan Kelly of Pear Analytics, Twitter’s users are roughly 55% women, 45% between the ages of 18 and 34; is used by 60% of a population that possesses either a college or post-college degree and involves 34% more African American users than the Internet average. Putting it simply, Twitter users are prime targets for contributions to historical commentary. Educated, socially interested, and loquacious enough to maximize 140 characters, giving each message more weight, as it has been distilled down to its purest form while being able to convey the point.

A secondary benefit is how quickly Twitter is becoming associated with commentary on current events. Beginning its rise to prominence during the Obama campaign, the online service was a constantly utilized tool by grassroots Democratic movements to promote rallies, spark debate and most importantly, motivate people to vote, especially on college campuses. In fact, something I had forgotten until I was looking at Andrew Hampp's Inauguration Coverage, but for Obama’s history making inauguration, Twitter received five-times its normal traffic, and users were suffering from over capacity errors and extended delays in updates.

Twitter was also incredibly involved with the scandal involving the Iranian election in June of 2009. Amidst controversy that incumbent President Ahmadinejad had falsified ballots to win the election with 62% of the vote. In the days that followed, a number of raids were performed on various public media facilities, including those run by the BBC and NBC news. Facebook was also targeted for filtration and with that, people turned to Twitter to get the word out and like the Obama campaign, Twitter responded. While I was unable to locate the statistics, I can recall from memory the countless tweets and re-tweets (copying and pasting someone else’s tweet so your friends can see it) urging people to shade their avatars green, change their default locations to Tehran and tweeting between specific hours to help throw off filters. The staff of Twitter even went as far as re-scheduling maintenance to times that would have a lesser effect on the organizations of protest rallies and liberal outcries.

Most recently, Twitter has been in the press for being under fire by Oil Company BP, during this most recent spill for allowing a spoof BP public relations account to exist. Although the account “claims” to be the official PR account for the company, reading one or two of the tweets makes it clear that it is not the case. The account is followed by over 100,000 people and has also raised more than $10,000 for relief causes, and continues to generate attention and discussion with its humorous takes and creative jabs at the continuing crisis.

However, these events are probably more exception than rule. If we refer back to the statistics generated by Kelly, 40% of tweets are labeled as “Pointless Babble,” meaning they hold no substantial value and with “Conversational” tweets making up 37% of tweets, there is a lot of fat to trim just to get some meat. I certainly can recall chiming in my own two cents during the Obama inauguration, but it would be kidding myself to think that in the end it had any actual meaning or historical relevance

In the end, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle as Twitter is still a fairly young service only beginning to truly reach its potential. Given that the amount of space it takes to archive each day’s total seems inconsequential to the bigger picture of the world’s stored information, the problem remains in gauging its true worth as it relies on three big questions: What is its future worth? Can it be sorted easily? And How much will it cost to store it?

At this point, questions number one and three are unanswerable, we’re still not far enough removed to be able to truly gauge how much can be gleaned from Twitter’s annals and with the program being less than six weeks old, there are far too many details to be ironed out to generate solid numbers. That leaves us with question two and so far, the answer to that question is yes.

In his article, “What Social Media Means for Search,” Peter Hershberg makes a great point that I had forgotten all about, which is that a year or so ago, Twitter changed their branding from, “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?” evolving their focus away from the person routines of life and towards “tapping into the now,” guiding their service towards categorization and collectivity versus the individual, something that Google is exploiting now that they have begun to assist with the archiving of tweets and the navigation of on-going chatter.

The service, Google Update, allows you to input a search term, and then either monitor the present flow of discussion, or search backwards through time looking for information relevant to your topic. The site’s display even includes a detailed timeline that can be interacted with, allowing you to look for tweets within a specific time period of a given day. The backlog only goes a few months at this time, but that will inevitably change as Google continues to sort the present while making gains on the past.

Having spent this time in reflection, I must admit that I am still very torn about the decision to preserve Twitter’s archives, but I recognize that it comes from extreme bias. While I enjoy the people that I interact with on a day to day basis, I honestly feel like I’m not encountering any material that is necessary for the betterment of the world. In fact, based on my day to day encounters, I might argue the opposite, that it shouldn’t be saved. However, there is a part of me that understands that my social circle is only a very, very small piece of the world and to just jettison the whole thing would guarantee the loss of at least one baby, along with the bathwater.

References, Additional Reading, Other Materials:

Branham, Mary. "The New Public Sphere." State News Vol. 52 No. 7. Aug 2009: 8. SIRS Researcher. Web. 13 Jun 2010.

Deborah Zabarenko, & Dan Whitcomb. (2010, June 6). A groundswell against BP on Facebook, Twitter. The Washington Post,p. G.5. Retrieved June 13, 2010, from Washington Post. (Document ID: 2050610421).

Hampp, A., Klaassen, A., York, E., Zmuda, N., Teinowitz, I., & Halliday, J. (2009). Inauguration scorecard: Who seized the day and who stumbled. Advertising Age, 80(3), 3-36. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Hershberg, P. (2009). WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA MEANS FOR SEARCH. Advertising Age, 80(11), 40. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Kelly, Ryan. “Twitter Study. August 2009.” August 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Twitter-Study-August-2009.pdf

Morozov, E.. (2009, October). Iran: Downside to the "Twitter Revolution". Dissent, 56(4), 10-14. Retrieved June 13, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1884437691).

Oder, N., Barack, L., Blumenstein, L., Friedman, S., Hadro, J., & Witherell, M. (2010). LC GETS TWITTER ARCHIVES. Library Journal, 135(9), 14. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.

Riddel, Jamie. “Google Launches Twitter Timeline Search.” April 14^th, 2010. Retrieved from: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/04/14/google-launches-twitter-timeline-search/

Swartz, Jon. "Library of Congress Plans to Archive Twitter Posts." USA TODAY. 15 Apr 2010: B.1. SIRS Researcher. Web. 13 Jun 2010.