The UCLA Film and Television Archive, the largest university-based collection of film and television materials in the world, has announced the launch of an M.A. degree program in Moving Image Archive Studies. The MIAS program responds to a need voiced by the Librarian of Congress, and will be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

Fall 2002 student applications have been accepted for this intensive, specialized, two-year course of study offered jointly by UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Digital Media and Department of Information Studies.

“This new program will meet a pressing demand for a new generation of scholars and archivists in both the public and private sector,” said Peter Wollen, chair of the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. “We are excited about the potential benefits for this university and academic scholarship in general, as well as the important gains the film industry will realize.”

Courses will be taught by a distinctive combination of UCLA faculty, top-level preservationists, academic scholars and technical experts. Subject matter to be taught includes: the history of all moving-image media, the cultural responsibilities of selection and curatorship, access and programming for the public, collection management, cataloging and documentation, and technical aspects of preservation and restoration.

“The MIAS program brings together the strengths of three internationally recognized UCLA units: the Department of Information Studies; the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media; and the Film and Television Archive,” said Michele Cloonan, chair of the Department of Information Studies. “The possibilities inherent in this collaboration are quite exciting.”

The new program will link a rigorous course of study to hands-on activities both in UCLA’s own Film and Television Archive and off-campus. Extensive apprenticeship opportunities will be available at archives, media libraries, film and television studios, laboratories, digital post-production houses, and other facilities that are unique to the greater Los Angeles area.

“Moving images are arguably the most pervasive and influential media of the 20th century. They are at once: art form, historical document, cultural artifact, market commodity,
political force and omnipresent part of popular culture,” said Steven Ricci, secretary general of the International Federation of Film Archives. “If we consider the continual growth of media types and outlets, if we pay any attention at all to the rapid expansion of new technologies, such a program is simply crucial to our culture.”

Graduates of the program will go to work in a widely diverse spectrum of national, regional and local archives; museums; historical societies; research institutes; production studios; broadcast companies; stock footage suppliers; film, video and sound transfer laboratories; digital post-production and restoration houses; state-of-the-art vault and inspection facilities; asset management software developers; and other preservation-service providers.

The UCLA Program in Moving Image Archive Studies will be highly selective, with a maximum of ten students admitted each year.

For further information about the program please e-mail Lynn Boyden.