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A conversation between filmmaker Dorothy Tod and VI publisher Rob Williams. Find out more about VAMP and make a donation here.
Q. What’s the vision with VAMP?
VAMP’s vision is to restore, archive and make accessible films made in Vermont, by Vermonters, and/or about Vermont. Despite a thriving filmmaker community, there is no central database of films made in Vermont, much less a repository where one can view these films. We have embarked on creating this database (600 films and counting), and we are raising money so we can create a robust, interactive, multi-media website available for free to anybody, anywhere in the world.
Q. Why VAMP now?
A. Vermont libraries have been throwing out their collections of 16mm films and the prints and originals of Vermont films are moldering in peoples’ barns. I was concerned about how best to digitize my work, and I figured other Vermont filmmakers might be facing this question. I am on the board of Green Valley Media, and we decided to address the issue of the survival of films by Vermont independent filmmakers. Most films and videos made in Vermont are not conserved properly and will soon become unplayable (some already have) and lost forever, if efforts aren’t made to identify and preserve them. We formed committees and created criteria for the database and started restoring some films. Priority is ranked as follows: 1. Is the motion picture deemed at risk?; 2. Is it significant to the history and culture of Vermont?; 3. Is the filmmaker important to the history of filmmaking in the state?
Types of film: currently VAMP is focusing on narrative and documentary completed films. As funds allow, it will expand to animation and experimental, home movies, and finally industrial and corporate.
Q. In what ways is film important to understanding what makes Vermont tick?
A. I worked on Nora Jacobson’s “Freedom And Unity” movie where we became aware of and made much use of Vermont visual history currently in the various Vermont archives. This relationship has become the basis of working with our key collaborators – the Vermont Folklife Center, Vermont Historical Society, University of Vermont, Vermont Department of Libraries, and Vermont PBS Future filmmakers will have access to a visual legacy to incorporate into their thinking and work.
Q. How has the Digital Age impacted the work of filmmakers here in Vermont?
A. Initially, it is depressing to have technology make your chosen format obsolete. I had to convert work from 16mm to VHS back in the 1980s and now I am trying to figure out what is the right kind of digital. But the chance for access and distribution on the web makes it worth trying to figure out. Libraries are becoming digital archives, and following their lead has been instructive. But the Digital Age has created a culture awash in visual media and that is a daunting reality.
Q. Give us three good reasons to fund this VAMP project.
VAMP has three top priorities for 2016-17:
(1) to focus on cataloging and begin to digitize – in some cases restore – and collect feature films by the state’s independent filmmakers;
(2) to create a robust, digitally accessible website to showcase films in the VAMP archive; film clips & low-resolution films will be available online so that anyone in the world can view them;
(3) to conduct outreach to Vermont libraries, universities, and institutions publicizing Vermont films, filmmakers and VAMP’s archival and digital resources.
Q. Anything else we should know about VAMP?
A. The first film selected for digitization was Chester Grimes. A $2,000 grant from Green Valley media was awarded Herb Di Gioia and the resulting 2K digital version was first presented at the 2015 Vermont International Film Festival, in the presence of Di Gioia. In the same year the film Transformations, a short women’s collective film was digitized and also shown at the Festival. It is the first film to be streamed on the VAMP VimeoPro Channel.
VAMP also allocated funds, with support from Green Valley Media, to the Vermont Movie Collaborative to organize and catalog its vast treasure trove of Vermont-shot films and footage, with the purpose of making this information free and available for public research.
The third film restored and presented to the public is the 1916 feature A Vermont Romance, the first feature film to be made and shot in the state. For the film’s 100th anniversary in 2016 VAMP – together with the Vermont Historical Society – has digitally remastered the film (only 16mm prints survive from the original 35mm), commissioned a special new music score to be played live with the digitized version. We have embarked on a statewide tour of the film, with the live piano accompaniment by Bob Merrill.
Tour Dates and Locations:
Saturday, March 26, 4:00pm: Pavillion Auditorium, Montpelier
Part of the Green Mountain Film Festival
Friday, April 15th, 7:00pm: Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury
Sunday, April 17th, 7:00pm: Briggs Opera House, White River Junction
Thursday, April 28, 6:00pm: Main Street Landing Film House, Burlington
Presented by Main Street Landing & The Burlington Film Society
Sunday, May 8, 4:00pm: Latchis Theater, Brattleboro
Friday, May 13th, 7:00pm: Town Hall Theater, Middlebury
The restoration of the film is a partnership between VAMP & the Vermont Historical Society
Tour sponsors:
National Life Group; VPR; Vermont Humanities Council; Urban Rhino; John M. Bissell Foundation
We recently launched a http://www.hatchfund.org/project/vamp campaign to help fund these efforts. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you.
Dorothy Tod has been making films in Vermont since 1970 and is on the board of Green Valley Media, which originated this project..
