My Short Films Are Headed To UCLA Archive

Over the weekend, I boxed up the 16mm negatives of my two NYU short films SHALL WE DANCE and POOL DAYS for a trip out west to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.  The archive, partnering with Outfest, has created the Legacy initiative to preserve LGBT films for scholars and researchers. It's a massive collection, with thousands of holdings which make it the largest repository of LGBT media in the world.

I had been called by a festival programmer last summer and asked about putting my films in the archive. At the time, I was working on another project and though it sounded like a great idea I just didn't get around to it. Fast forward to last month and this became my New Year's resolution; to get my previous films in order and properly stowed for the future. I THINK I DO, my first feature, will be heading to the archive shortly from a vault in Glendale, where it's been for the last few years. And I'm currently making some transfers to digital media of my Super8 movies from even further back.

For my film school shorts, it's certainly a lot better having these negatives stored in proper archival conditions rather than in a cardboard box under my bed (where most filmmakers tend to put their projects "in storage"). I'm very grateful to Outfest (which has screened 6 of my films over the yeas) and UCLA for supporting this project and making it possible for filmmakers to have some peace of mind, knowing their work is in a safe for place for generations to come.