Summary
Work History
Education
Skills
Affiliations
Interests
Honors & Awards
Professional Development
Study Abroad
Publications & Papers
Conference Presentations
Relevant Experience
Timeline
Generic

Westley Felton

Film Archivist
23 Mechanic Street,Bucksport, ME

Summary

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Work History

Film Technician

Northeast Historic Film
11.2024 - Current
  • Inspect, clean, repair, evaluate, and prepare 1,073,850 ft. of motion picture film for digitization. Maintain clear records of each item by noting damage and completing print condition reports and cataloging findings. Scanning motion picture film. Processing, organizing, documenting, and assigning accession numbers to unprocessed collections.

Education

Certificate - Film Preservation & Restoration

L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation
Rochester, NY

Bachelor of Arts - English/Film Studies

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN

Skills

    Written Communication

    Self-Motivated

    Time Management

    Adaptable

    Interpersonal Communication

    Organized

    Analytical Skills

    Independent Worker

    Detail-Oriented

    Problem-Solving

    Collaborative

Affiliations

  • The Association of Moving Image Archivists
  • International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives
  • Dormitor- The International Society for the Study of Early Cinema
  • Society for Cinema and Media Studies
  • International Association for Media and History
  • Arthouse Convergence

Interests

  • Film Preservation
  • Film History
  • Film Restoration
  • Film Programming and Curation
  • Digital Archives
  • Film Inspection

Honors & Awards

  • The George Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services Fellowship 2023.

Awarded every year to a student of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation that has distinguished him/herself for interest and abilities in the field of digital preservation, and supported by George Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services, this fellowship aims at offering further training and experience in digital technologies applied to preservation and access. The winner of the fellowship performs paid work at George Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services on a full-time basis over two months. The fellowship recipient will assist the laboratory staff in day-to-day activities and take part in current digital preservation and access.Projects included: film inspection, handling and repair, scanning, creation of digital cinema packages (DCP), grading and editing in DaVinci Resolve, and digital restoration in Diamant and Phoenix.  

  • Awarded Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program 2009.

Received a research grant for the in-depth study of Iranian Cinema. Grant coincided with course, ENG L-495: Individual Readings in English. Designed an upper-division course where I explored the history of Iran’s cinematic traditions, film industry, culture, with weekly readings, a research paper, and weekly screenings open to the public followed by Q&A. Filmmakers covered in the course included Moshen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Dariush Mehrjui, Rakshan Bani-Etemod, and other directors. Highlights also included clips of silent films, women’s filmmaking, experimental film, and animation.

  • IUPUI Film Studies Award 2008.

Award that recognizes an outstanding student in the Film Studies Program within the Department of English in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI.

Professional Development

  • Association of Moving Image Archivists Conference, 2022.
  • The Living Picture Craze: An Introduction to Victorian Cinema, British Film Institute Online Course, 2022.

Course explores the birth of film and the end of Queen Victoria's reign, using the BFI's unique collection of surviving Victorian films. Examines what the films made in the era say about the society that produced them. Focus on film's formative years from 1895-1901.

  • Filmuni Digital Archive Summer School, Postdam Germany, 2021.

Held in collaboration with the Filmuni Summer School and the FIAF Cataloguing & Documentation Commission and the Deutsche Kinemathek, The Summer School is a 5-day practice-oriented seminar that aims to enhance attendees knowledge about digital environments and processes related to digital archives. Titled "Data Literacy and Presentation Strategies in Audiovisual Archives," topics covered included: conversion, codecs, metadata schemes, controlled vocabularies/thesauri,data cleaning/mapping/open refine, identifier authority files, linked and open data, wikidata, open source software: DCP-o-Matic, FFMPEG, and digital preservation.


Study Abroad

  • Paris Noir: Literature, Art, & Contemporary Life in Diaspora, Paris, France, 2009.

Examined the strong influence Black cultures have had on the city of Paris from a variety of disciplinary stances. Students exchange ideas with some of the most influential writers, scholars, journalists and community activists, as well as people from the worlds of politics, fashion, and music. Classes take place at the famous Café de Flore. 

  • Independent Study, Paris, France, 2009.

Project that focused on African Francophone cinemas and the relationship between French film, African Cinemas, colonialism, and the symbiotic relationship with one another. Conducted research, interviews, and data that culminated in a final report and presentation on my research.

Publications & Papers

Re-writing History in Julie Dash’s Illusions, Senses of Cinema, Issue 49, 2009.

  • Analyses the 1982 film from L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Julie Dash, set in 1940s Hollywood and its pungent allegory about the racial politics of image/sound displacement.

Caught in the Undertow: African Francophone Cinema in the French New Wave, Senses of Cinema, Issue 57, 2010.

  • Contemporaneous with the French New Wave, there were many filmmakers working in France of African origin whose work has rarely been absorbed into the cultural framework of film history. One of these filmmakers is Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, and this essay explores his 1955 film, Africa on the Seine.

“She Invited Herself”: Sunday Too Far Away, Senses of Cinema, Issue 70, 2014.

  • Focuses on the 1975 film Sunday Too Far Away and its place as one of the “Key Moments in Australian Cinema.”


Conference Presentations

The Camera as Incendiary Gun: The Hour of the Furnaces, Midwest Undergraduate Film Conference, 2009.

  • Explores the 1968 film directed by Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas, as it addresses the politics of the Third Cinema filmmaking movement and the utilization of the film manifesto “Towards a Third Cinema.”

Relevant Experience

IUPUI Film Club, 2007-2009.

  • President. Planned weekly meetings, programmed each semester’s screenings, ordered films from libraries and other institutions, oversaw discussions after film screenings.

Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, 2008.

  • Screening and selection committee, planning committee.

Indiana Film Society, 2009-2012.

  • Helped program screenings, managed memberships.

Heartland Film Festival, 2011-2018.

  • Screening and selection committee 2011-2018, box office 2011-2015, usher 2011-2013, "Cultural Journey: India" (event organizing, planning, and setup) 2017, Indy Shorts Film Festival (screening and selection committee) 2017.

Indy Film Fest, 2014-2019.

  • Selection committee, festival planning team, filmmaker and VIP liaison.

Circle City Film Society, 2018-2021.

  • President. Oversaw the year-round planning and execution of the organization. Curated film screenings for the Indianapolis community ranging from newly released independent films to classics of World Cinema. Worked with other parties, both inside and outside the organization, to produce all the various aspects of screening events.

Sundance Film Festival, 2019.

  • Events Team. Supported the Sundance Institute Events Department to successfully execute a wide variety of events during the festival. Collection and record-keeping, management of events, guest relations, and implementing plans for events ranging from filmmaker panels, producer and director meet and greets, industry workshops, and retrospective screenings.

Nitrate Picture Show, 2023.

  • Registration

Timeline

Film Technician

Northeast Historic Film
11.2024 - Current

Certificate - Film Preservation & Restoration

L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation

Bachelor of Arts - English/Film Studies

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Westley FeltonFilm Archivist