Help The A/V Geeks Get Digitized
The A/V Geeks collect and show vintage 16mm educational films. Their collection, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has reached a staggering 23,000 films (and I have so many questions about this. Where would you keep the reels? Do people have educational film parties?) Now the company’s impresario Skip Elsheimer has launched a crowdfunding campaign to ensure that this collection of movies remains alive – and in the public domain – forever. The project aims to digitize 100 miles (or 240 hours) worth of film and make it available at archive.org and Youtube so they can be watched, used and enjoyed by students, cinephiles, archival completists and filmmakers alike. The $50,000 goal will enable the geeks and a small team to “catalog, curate, prep, clean, digitize, post-process, upload and share” the films.
Why Donate?: The geeks have a long history of archiving and digitizing works for other organizations, so you know that they know what they’re doing and will ensure the process moves along efficiently. More importantly, the digitization of these films cuts down on the amount of costly, resource-burning travel the company currently undertakes to show the films to collectors, classrooms et al. This way, you can have a personal educational film fest in the comfort of your own home.
Perks? $25 and up nabs you “voting rights” – you’ll get to help pick which films are digitized – and a greatest-hits DVD with some film highlights. $300 gets you a private screening party presented by the A/V Geeks. $500 is a total nerd perk and gets you a chance to visit the Geeks’ headquarters and help them digitize films for a day.
Visit the project website to learn more, and take a look at the video below: