Danielle Calle, IndieCollect, Spring 2018, NEH
This spring I had the opportunity to intern at IndieCollect, a non-profit organization whose mission is to catalog the entire canon of American Independent cinema. This experience highlighted in important ways how the term "indie film" has changed throughout the years, especially given the changes in technology and the introduction of digital cinema. With the guidance of Steve Blakely, the Collection Assessment & Archive Liaison Officer at IndieCollect, I was able to contextualize the many production processes a filmmaker would have contended with between the 1970s into the 2000s through Blakely's 35 year history as Vice President at DuArt Film & Video. Some key site visits were conducted at the personal archives of Josie Dean, Lesli Klainberg, and Mark Street—all independent filmmakers based in New York City. Through these visits, I gained more knowledge of analog film and video formats, and furthermore, had the chance to expand on my coursework in order to tackle large and at times unruly personal collections. Overall, the experience was eye-opening and informative as an independent filmmaker working in the digital era.
Danielle Calle interned at IndieCollect in Spring 2018.
