Film Noir Foundation

There is simply no way to overstate the importance of Film Noir to the dieselpunk genre. Thankfully, there’s an organization dedicated to the preservation of the Film Noir classic movies: The Film Noir Foundation.

According to the Film Noir Foundation web site:

The Film Noir Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. It is our mission to find and preserve films in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged, and to ensure that high quality prints of these classic films remain in circulation for theatrical exhibition to future generations.

That's the high-toned legalese. Here are the facts: Even as the high-tech revolution lets us own vast film libraries on DVD, the risk grows greater all the time that 35mm prints of some films will fall into disuse and eventually disintegrate—especially lesser-known titles that have slipped through the cultural cracks, but are worthy of rediscovery.

As a focal point of the classic film noir revival, the Foundation serves as a conduit between film companies and repertory cinemas still eager to screen these films in 35mm. Revenues generated by ticket sales encourage studios film archives to strike new prints of films that are at risk of disappearing from public view, either through neglect or scarcity.

Once these films are unearthed and returned to circulation, the chances exponentially increase that they will be reissued on DVD, available in pristine, affordable form for future generations of film-lovers.

As part of their public awareness campaign Film Noir Foundation hosts the annual Noir City Film Festival. The Film Festival runs for ten days every January in San Francisco showing rare films along with special guests and music. This year there will be a Noir City Film Festival held in Washington, D.C. running October 16th through November 3rd.

By making a small donation of $10 or more to the Film Noir Foundation web site one can subscribe to receive the Film Noir Foundation's amazing quarterly electronic magazine, the NOIR CITY, which has in-depth articles on classic film noir movies, their productions and the actors that we all love. This magazine is a must have for anyone who’s a fan of film noir.

Noir City

Like most non-profits the greater the amount of donation the greater the benefits. But what matters more than what one receives is the knowledge that by donating one is helping to preserve an important part of diesel era history.