Episode #85 - Jeff Lambert (Stranger Than Paradise)

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"The things that were not being protected were home movies, industrial films, education films, avant-garde films, and the like—what we now call orphan films."

In our growing and expanding media moment, cinephiles are recognizing more and more that only watching theatrically released feature films limits one's cinematic worldview. Whether it be amateur home movies, the avant-garde, or even instructional demonstrations, these films can both inspire a new way to look at art and history. One organization has helped spearhead this movement: The National Film Preservation Foundation, now led by its Executive Director Jeff Lambert. Jeff joins the show to discuss his first wave of cinephilia at the video store to his eventual job at the NFPF, explaining the various tasks to distribute funding to archives to keep our national history alive. Plus, the two examine the film-digital divide from the archival perspective, the building of an avant-garde canon, and Jeff's predilection for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Finally, the two dive into Stranger Than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch's 1984 film and discuss how the film that birthed hundreds of hipster indies still remains unique to this day.

0:00-3:23 Opening

4:12-9:13 Establishing Shots — Jet Pilot

9:59-48:39 Deep Focus — Jeff Lambert

49:24-51:51 Sponsorship Section

53:32-1:09:21 Double Exposure — Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)

1:09:25-1:11:04 Close 

Notes and Links from the Conversation
—Learn more about Jeff and the National Film Preservation Foundation
—Learn more about Jet Pilot in John Baxter's biography Von Sternberg
—Erin Hill's Never Done: A History of Women's Work in Media Production
—A trailer for Chuck Norris's Good Guys Don't Wear Black
—Jeff on the VHS Generation
—Scott Simmon and his essay on Within Our Gates
—Read the 1996 Congressional Mandate on Film Preservation
—Scorsese on Film Preservation
—Chicago Film Archive
—Check out the DVDs from NFPF, including Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 and Lost & Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive
—A brief history of CalArts and its experimental film
—The NFPF Screening Room
—Xavier Renegade Angels
—Robert Nelson's Bleu Shut (1971)
—Jeff on The Brown Bunny
—Ezra Klein on the Marvel Cinematic Universe
—The video for Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
—Kent Jones on Dazed & Confused
—Andrew Hick's on the "No Wave Movement" on the Lower East Side

Theme Music: “Forward” by Northbound

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