Grant to Support 16mm Film Celebration

By Joe Hiland

December 5th, 2022

Indiana University Libraries’ Moving Image Archive (IULMIA) and The Media School at IU Bloomington are celebrating a $100,000 grant from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation (AWCCF) to support A Century of 16mm: Expanding the Possibilities and Extending the Reach of Cinema.

Throughout 2023, Indiana University organizers will present a series of public events to mark the 100th anniversary of the introduction of non-flammable 16mm safety motion picture film, first developed and marketed by Eastman Kodak in 1923.

The statewide project is led by Rachael Stoeltje, Associate Librarian and Director of the Moving Image Archives, and Greg Waller, Provost Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the IU Media School. As archivist and scholar, respectively, Stoeltje and Waller have devoted much of their professional careers to the preservation and study of 16mm as one of the twentieth century’s most significant media forms. Stoeltje is currently president of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and served on the Executive Committee of the prestigious International Federation of Film Archives. Waller is editor of the quarterly journal Film History from IU Press.

The introduction of 16mm revolutionized film as a medium for communication, entertainment and artistic expression. As Waller explained, the relatively inexpensive film, cameras and projectors suddenly made filmmaking a viable pursuit for people outside of Hollywood.

“16mm both broadened and transformed what we think of as film,” he said, noting that 16mm was utilized for everything from home movies and educational films to public service announcements and corporate training films. “The cameras aimed at the consumer market were easy to use, so almost anyone could become proficient. And the projectors were highly portable, so almost anywhere could become a screening space.”

A Century of 16mm will highlight this diversity of films and filmmakers. In addition to the AWCCF grant, the project is supported by several units around the Bloomington campus, including the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President and the Arts and Humanities Council.

“We are so grateful to the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation and all of our campus partners for their support,” said Diane Dallis-Comentale, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries. “Their generosity will allow us to bring a unique and diverse set of programs to a broad audience here on campus and across the state. A Century of 16mm will showcase IU Bloomington at its best.”

Public programming for A Century of 16mm will take place in Bloomington, Indianapolis, and elsewhere around the state of Indiana. The programming will draw upon resources at IU Bloomington such as archival collections and exhibition spaces, as well as the expertise of faculty and staff.

Stoeltje noted, “We have spaces like the IU Libraries Screening Room in Wells Library, which is excellent for smaller audiences, and of course IU Cinema, which is a magical place to screen any film. Then we have faculty experts in film studies in the Media School and other units around campus, as wells as archivists and staff experts in film restoration and preservation. We can approach the topic from an incredible number of angles to consider the cultural impact of 16mm, its historical importance and its influence on American cinema today.”

Portrait of Rachael Stoeltje in front of stored film in the Moving Image Archive.

IU Bloomington is the ideal institution for an undertaking like A Century of 16mm. We have a rich history of film scholarship, preservation and even production, dating back to the era of Herman B Wells.

Rachael Stoeltje, Director, Moving Image Archives

A Century of 16mm will include a physical exhibition at Bloomington’s newest exhibition space, IU’s University Collections at McCalla, which was renovated with support from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation last year. The exhibition will feature items primarily curated from IULMIA’s Alan Lewis Collection such as 16mm cameras and projectors. The exhibition will open in February 2023 and run through December 2023. IU Press will produce the exhibition catalogue.

IU Cinema Founding Director Jon Vickers and his wife, Jennifer, are curating a series of 16mm screenings from the Moving Image Archive’s collections that will take place around Indiana throughout 2023. The Vickers have over 25 years of cinema curation and exhibition experience, including the opening and management of a cinema in Michigan and the opening and leadership of the Browning Cinema at the University of Notre Dame.

The screenings planned for A Century of 16mm are comprised of rich programs of educational films that were distributed and sometimes even produced by Indiana University. The most famous film among those to be screened is The Masters of Disaster (1986), a documentary produced by IU that follows eight black sixth graders at Indianapolis Public School 27 who form a chess team and go on to become national champions. It was the only film made by IU to be nominated for an Academy Award (Best Documentary Short). Throughout much of the twentieth century, IU was one of the largest centers for educational film distribution in the country. After the distribution unit was closed in the 1990s, the Moving Image Archive was created to preserve and make these films accessible.

Photograph of a Cine-Kodak Model B 16mm camera.

A Ciné-Kodak Model B camera (ostrich leather edition) from the Alan Lewis Collection.

Image of a magazine advertisement for Ciné-Kodak. The headline reads "Make a Movie of it with a Ciné-Kodak." The images show people using the camera and watching a film on a projector.

An early advertisement for Ciné-Kodak in Country Life magazine (1927).

Image from the film Masters of Disasters, showing school children playing chess.

An image from Masters of Disaster (1986).

While many programs in A Century of 16mm will offer retrospective looks at the medium, some will promote contemporary scholarship and creativity activity around 16mm. Stoeltje has commissioned 16 different filmmakers around the country to create films using only two three-minute 16mm reels each, one color and one black and white. The films will be screened at IU Cinema.

Waller will co-edit a book of 25 essays on 16mm film with Haidee Wasson of Concordia University, Montreal. Titled 16 at 100, the book will be published by Oxford University Press and feature scholars from around the world exploring issues such as the historical development of 16mm technology and the use of the film by institutions and artists.

In September 2023, IU Bloomington will host a multi-day academic conference featuring presentations, panel discussions, and workshops with leading scholars, archivists, and filmmakers, including several contributors to 16 at 100, as well as IU graduate students and alumni. The conference call for papers is open through January 31, 2023. The conference program will also include several screenings at IU Cinema and the IU Libraries Screening Room.

As Waller noted, A Century of 16mm reflects IU’s historic strengths in film studies and production, as well as the university’s recent emphasis on expanding upon these strengths.

Portrait of professor Greg Waller of IU Media School, outdoors with arms crossed.

Over the past decade or so IU has made incredible investments in film with the creation of the Media School, the founding of IU Cinema and the success of the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative. A Century of 16mm is a natural outgrowth of the commitment from university leadership to position IU as a national leader in scholarship, preservation and curation.

Greg Waller, Provost Professor, IU Media School

More information about A Century of 16mm can be found on the project website. Dates and times of all public events will be shared on the site as they are finalized.

IU Libraries’ Moving Image Archive is one of the world’s largest educational film and video collections. With more than 130,000 items spanning nearly 80 years of film production, the Archive is a member of the distinguished International Federation of Film Archives, the world’s leading association for film preservation.

The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation was founded in 1990 to continue the legacy of Indianapolis philanthropist Allen Clowes by promoting and preserving the arts and humanities in Central Indiana.

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Grant to Support 16mm Film Celebration

IU Bloomington is the ideal institution for an undertaking like A Century of 16mm. We have a rich history of film scholarship, preservation and even production, dating back to the era of Herman B Wells.