Hannah Franklin, Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), Summer 2017
My summer internship in the preservation department of Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) was a challenging yet incredibly rewarding experience. My tasks centered around the digitization of works from the Center for Educational Telecommunications (CET), a small cultural heritage institution based in Berkeley, California. Now known as CET Films, the Center is a non-profit organization responsible for producing and distributing educational films, focusing on Asian American history. This collection’s preservation is made possible by BAVC’s annual Preservation Access Program. The number and size of collections accepted for the Preservation Access Program are limited each year as BAVC relies on annual funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This year, CET Films submitted a selection of works produced, and often written and directed, by Loni Ding, CET’s founder. Formats captured in this collection include ½ inch open reel, U-matic, Betacam SP, DigiBeta, and VHS. Soon after CET Films accepts their digitized files, many titles will be available on Kanopy, the popular streaming service.
