At this year’s Le Giornate del Cinema Muto we met up with Ilse van der Spoel, who has been working at the EYE Filmmuseum for the past year as part of her internship for the MA Heritage Studies: Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image programme at The University of Amsterdam. Working with Silent Film Curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Ilse’s key project involved the inspection and registration of the Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection.
Ilse van der Spoel (credit: Ilse Van der Spoel)
The collection originally belonged to Mr. Van der Molen, a Dutch private collector and film projectionist, and was acquired by EYE in 2013. Based on the information they had received, EYE was expecting a collection of safety materials in 35mm and 16mm reductions. Imagine their surprise when they discovered that amongst the roughly 800 cans, approximately 150 cans contained nitrate elements! With no inventory or accompanying notes, they set forth to inspect, identify, and register all of the nitrate elements for their collection database. Here’s what Ilse had to share about her experience:
Your internship formed part of your graduate studies at The University of Amsterdam. Could you tell us a little about your professional and academic background prior to starting the programme?
I graduated with a BA in Film and Literary Studies from Leiden University and afterward interned for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) with one of the festival programmers. During my internship, I realised that a lot of film festivals work closely with archives, and that archives are part of a whole other world of cinephilia that I didn’t know much about! Later, I attended Giovanna Fossati’s lecture series “This is Film! Film Heritage in Transition” at the EYE Filmmuseum, which presented me with further questions and issues about film heritage. It was a whole new dimension to film studies that I hadn’t really had in my bachelor’s education. This eventually lead me to apply for the Heritage Studies: Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image (P&P) MA programme at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) — I wanted to explore issues particular to this dimension of film studies, and also to strengthen my position if I ever wanted to work for other film festivals or in film institutions.
When it came to choosing your internship, how did you narrow down your interests and decide to focus of film preservation?
My interest in archives was growing but I didn’t have any film handling experience or technical expertise. It felt like I really needed these particular skills before doing anything else, so starting out with an inspection and registration type internship made sense.
As a student of the P&P programme I had made visits to EYE for workshops and was really drawn to what Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi was doing. I instinctively felt that I would want to do something along the lines of what she was doing if I chose an internship with EYE. I was inspired by the observational sessions, particularly one in which Elif showed us a small reel of nitrate on the bench and talked us through the different types of identification methods. This whole idea of being a film detective is something that evidently really appeals to people; the possibility of not knowing what you might find and perhaps even coming across something that has been considered lost is very exciting. Before this internship I didn’t have much experience with silent film and was not sure if I’d be of much use, but I ended up really enjoying my time there.
“In this field there does not always seem to be one single path leading to one particular job”
How did the Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection become the key focus of your internship?
Around the time I contacted Elif about doing a nitrate-based internship I had also heard that organising such a project depended on whether or not EYE was working with their nitrate collections in that period. They do not deal with collections of this size on a regular basis, so I happened to be very lucky that they were going to process this collection in the same timeframe as my internship.
The internship involved working with several other people on identifying, registering, and checking the entire Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection. This collection did not require full-time attention from each person on the team, so I also had other daily responsibilities that allowed me to gain insight into the diversity of tasks involved with working in an archive. For example I also assisted with the creation of a new Bits & Pieces compilation, helped to process nitrate materials as they arrived, made translations of Dutch intertitles for films for Il Cinema Ritrovato and Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, and made an inventory of all the 68mm Mutoscope & Biograph copies in the collection.
Working full-time at EYE for six months also showed me how Elif works as a curator, how she contacts people, and how she thinks about the possibilities for a particular collection or title. It was just great insight into her work process and all the things that come up day-to-day. It was really nice that I could have my own projects whilst still getting such a strong sense of the daily workflow.
Your presentation at Pordenone focussed on the identification and registration of the Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection. Can you tell us a little more about what stage the project was at when you entered?
Well, the collection came in between 2013-2015, and before the move to the new collection centre an initial inventory list had already been made. For this reason, we already had some first indications to help us make observations like: “maybe these cans belong together” or “this sounds similar to the other can”.
In the end, it actually turned out that not all of the cans were accounted for in the preliminary inventory and I had to begin working on the those that had not yet been listed. This was an interesting experience because I had no idea what I would find. At the time, I was also working closely with an intern named Olivia Stutz and P&P student Nicholas Cohen, and after that first week of film inspection training we started processing the prints.
Ilse and EYE Silent Film Curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi presenting at the Pordenone Collegium 2017 (credit: Valerio Greco/ Le Giornate del Cinema Muto)
You mentioned that you previously had no film handling experience and that you received basic training early on in your internship. Can you tell us what it was like working with a unique nitrate collection as your first in-archive project?
In the beginning, I was really careful! I was really focussed on the action and the way I was handling the reel—you tend to wind the film with a lot of care and attention. If there was the slightest doubt we would always ask for help from Elif or the film restorer, Annike Kross, both of whom guided and taught us a lot.
Slowly and gradually, over the course of 6 months, I became quite confident. By doing the work every day you just subconsciously learn how to do it and become less afraid to make mistakes. Maybe you’re going to drop the reel at some point or break a film, but that’s also how you’re going to learn how to do things at the right speed and get a better sense of where the friction is; you develop a kind of intuition and ‘feeling’ for dealing with the material and how to work the different tables/viewers.
You need to break a few things to learn how to do this properly! That’s also the beautiful thing about EYE: they let interns handle these collections with the opportunity to learn responsibly under guidance of experts.
“It’s like browsing in a record store and finding a cool record that you’ve always wanted; identifying a film provides the same kind of visceral and rewarding ‘rush’.”
In your presentation, you spoke about methods of identifying film titles from a visual perspective. Could you give us an overview of some of the resources or approaches used when identifying titles from the Van der Molen/Manshanden collection?
There are a surprising amount of resources available! For instance, if you know it’s a Pathe film, you can consult the Pathe catalogue to try and find the title. Sometimes we also used this Harold Brown book, and some other publications on clothing and car styles. If you don’t really know how to find certain information then you have the option to contact “informants” outside of EYE: Elif would suggest that I contact particular people with more specialist knowledge on particular types of films. It really is about knowing who to ask and where to look. Sometimes you’re just comparing pictures of actors online to the pictures you took of a reel to see if you can connect the two. In other instances, it’s helpful to start by searching for a Dutch title in the database for Dutch newspapers, Delpher, which frequently contain advertisements for films linked to the names of actors and directors.
For some references I consulted books—I can’t imagine how identification worked in the past when people working in archives had to look through piles of books for references. There were a few times where I went through books searching for titles by year, but I’m really glad the internet has made things so much easier!
As I said, I didn’t have a lot of previous experience in silent cinema, so I thought I was going to be rubbish at this because I couldn’t recognise any actors! After a certain point though I learned a lot of names from working with so many films. It was actually easier than I thought; there’s a lot of documentation and you can find a lot about these films through the right kind of research and visual analysis—you just have to know where to look!
You and Elif also spoke about collaborating with other archives on the Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection. Could you tell us a little more about this?
Well, as you probably know, whatever you want to do with a film in an archival context is dependent on money (or outside that too, I guess). For instance, is there money to actively preserve, restore, scan, and digitise the film? And with what goal/purpose? This is where Elif’s job as a curator comes in. She has to find these budgets and initiate these kinds of projects, ideally together with other archives.
As we mentioned in the presentation in Pordenone, several projects have been initiated: two previously lost Danish silent films, Gorki (1912) and I Opiumets Magt (1915), will be preserved and digitised together with the Danish Film Institute. One Hungarian lost film, A munkászubbony (1915), will be preserved and restored by the Hungarian National Film Archive; and the film Jane’s Declaration of Independence (1915) will be restored in collaboration with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I also know that in Pordenone there have been talks about digitising and possibly screening the Henny Porten film Gräfin Küchenfee (1918) at some festivals next year.
“You need to break a few things to learn how to do this properly!”
Do you have any plans for future involvement with the collection? Are you planning any further presentations at conferences or festivals?
I would like to stay involved but do not know if I will and in what capacity. The nitrate elements in the Van der Molen/Manshanden collection are processed, but the safety materials from this collection have not yet been done. I have already offered to work on them next year but do not know if there will be money for someone to do a project around that part of the collection.
Maybe I will continue at EYE as a volunteer while I am writing my thesis next semester as a means to stay involved and to keep evolving my film handling skills. The presentation in Pordenone and my blog posts on the collection have been the cherry on the cake of my internship, but I do hope to keep informed on what is going to happen to the films. After working on these films for the past year I feel responsible for them—they kind of become your ‘babies’!
During your internship, were there any particularly challenging moments that you found difficult? If so, how did you deal with them?
I might have experienced some of the day-to-day work as laborious in the moment itself because I was essentially doing the same things for each film: checking the material, viewing it, writing reports, and entering data. Of course, it can also be considered lonely work as well because one is kind of ‘hidden’ in the nitrate room—it’s just you and the material.
In hindsight, it was not tedious for me (or at least I do not think of it in that way now) because I was given a wide variety of tasks and responsibilities. Even if I seemed to be performing the same tasks for the identification process, each film is unique and has its own problems, and each film I looked at was a new prospective discovery, which for me never made it boring. I think in working with nitrate collections specifically there is always that potential to find a lost film or something peculiar, so perhaps that is also something that keeps it exciting.
Ilse inspecting film at EYE (credit: Ilse van der Spoel)
Was there a singular highlight of your internship? Or perhaps specific tasks that you found the most stimulating or rewarding?
I think it was every time I was able to identify a film, especially when the process of identification was a struggle. One can spend days looking at actresses’ pictures and comparing them to images from a film, but if the next day you type in a keyword and suddenly discover a specific title it gives you such a great feeling. It’s like browsing in a record store and finding a cool record that you’ve always wanted; identifying a film provides the same kind of visceral and rewarding ‘rush’.
Lastly, I’d have to say a highlight was definitely working with other people in the archive, especially with the other interns; you are on the same level and in the same hierarchical situation trying to learn the ways of film handling and nitrate identification. I also really enjoyed not only learning from curators and other people working in the archive, but also how you can exchange skills with people who are also there to learn and gain new experiences. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked with these interns and developed these amazing friendships after work because it’s not always like that; sometimes there is no connection between you and the other interns, or even a feeling of competition. With me and the others I never felt this kind of disconnect because the atmosphere at EYE is quite relaxed and we were really working together and helping each other. This is also the beauty of working in such an international setting, as it becomes a site for sharing knowledge, skills, and cultural backgrounds too.
Are there any specific skills that you would like to acquire in the future or particular areas that you would like to learn more about?
Of course, there are things I would still like to learn in terms of skills, especially regarding technical skills and film technology where there is always more to learn. I currently work as a floor manager/digital projectionist in a cinema and would love to learn to operate analogue projectors as well.
In terms of archiving I would still like to do film repairs and also perhaps gain experience in film restoration. Though a paid job would be preferable I’m also open to doing another internship, but only if there are useful skills and knowledge to be achieved geared toward something I want to do later on.
Finally – the dreaded question: Do you have any firm post-graduation plans?
I’m in the process of finishing my MA in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image and at the same time hope to finish my RMA in Cultural Analysis next semester, so I’m still fully occupied by academic work for now—there is a lot on my plate! I did both masters to keep my ‘options open’ (of either working in the world of film festivals/archives, or doing a PhD) and hoped that along the way I would find out what I really want to do most.
Now, almost three years later, I can’t say I have found out what I really want to do, but I’ve actually embraced that uncertainty. I’ve learned not to want to find out ‘what’ it is I want to do. Whether you want to do a PhD or want to work in the film world, both academia and the cultural sector will entail a high level of precariousness: there are not many (paid) jobs and even if you have a job, for example at a festival, you never know if it’ll be available for next year’s edition. If you want to do a PhD you might have to compete with 600 other applicants for a paid position.
Another thing regarding jobs is that often it is not even about experience or your degree, but just about being lucky: being in the right place at the right time, for example when someone is going on pregnancy leave or when there is suddenly a bigger budget to work on a particular project.
When I graduate I’m just going to see what is out there for me and not focus too much on one particular job or ‘bet’ on one particular option. I just have a passion for cinema and would like to have any job that would entail working with/on film in relation to programming, curating, writing, or researching—these are the areas in which my strengths lie. Essentially, any job where a passion for and celebration of film is central.
What I have witnessed this year at Pordenone (and have seen in my work over the past years) is that it does not have to be one singular choice: many people teaching and researching at universities also curate programmes for Pordenone, or people that are now curators for archives also previously worked as restorers or registrars.
In this field there does not always seem to be one single path leading to one particular job, so I am very much open to see where my ‘path’ will lead after I graduate!
Want to find out more about Ilse’s internship? Check out her blog posts for the EYE Collections Blog:
Notes from a Nitrate Beginner (May, 2017)
Report on the Nitrate Vault Control Week 2017 (July, 2017)
Finishing the Van der Molen/Manshanden Collection: Findings and Conclusions (October, 2017)
Main Photo: Ilse and Elif presenting at the Pordenone Collegium (Credit: Valerio Greco/ Le Giornate del Cinema Muto)
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