UCLA

Moving image archiving and preservation work concerned with the stewardship of media on photochemical film often involves the creation of new prints from at-risk original or extant materials. Film archivists and preservationists rely on technicians in sites known as film laboratories to conduct this work, where the images of photochemical film come to visual life through chemical processing and mechanical methods of duplication. Despite this working relationship, a need for a more extensive study of the role of film laboratories as organizations operating within or adjacent to the moving image archiving and preservation field remains. Structured interviews were conducted with employees, participants, and technicians of six film laboratories: commercial film laboratories Colorlab and Pro8mm; archival film laboratories at the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division and the Packard Humanities Institute; and artist-run film laboratories L’Abominable and Nanolab. By outlining their broader institutional logics and assessing how their various economic models, organizational structures, and technical practices align with the field, this thesis demonstrates the significant contributions that film laboratories make to the lifecycle of film and moving image archiving and preservation.