Human Studies Film Archives

The Archives started in 1975 as the National Anthropological Film Center (NAFC) by creating and collecting films of anthropological research. The NAFC was founded through the advocacy of notable anthropologists and filmmakers Margaret Mead, John Marshall, Timothy Asch,Alan Lomax and Jay Ruby.{{cite web|last=Homiak|first=Jake|title=History of the Human Studies Film Archives|url=http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/film_history.htm|publisher=National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives|accessdate=25 Nov 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127234352/http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/film_history.htm|archive-date=27 January 2013|url-status=dead}} The first director of the NAFC, E. Richard Sorenson, promoted anthropological film as a scientific research tool.{{cite journal|last=Sorenson|first=E. Richard|title=To Further Phenomenological Inquiry: The National Anthropological Film Center|journal=Current Anthropology|date=June 1975|volume=16|issue=2|pages=267–269|jstor=2741128|doi=10.1086/201547|s2cid=144891901}} The center received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health.{{cite journal|last=Horton|first=Alan W.|author2=E. Richard Sorenson|title=Anthropological Film Center|journal=Science News|date=1975-05-31|volume=107|issue=22|pages=347|doi=10.2307/3959823|jstor=3959823}} In 1981, the NAFC was renamed the Human Studies Film Archives and became part of the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History. Today, HSFA collections and resources support research on specific cultures and communities, the development of ethnographic film, and the broad study of visual culture.

HSFA collections comprise more than 8 million feet of film and almost one thousand hours of video recordings. These visual research resources, along with related documentary material encompass a broad range of documentary, travelogue, ethnographic film and amateur genres from 1908 to the present. Collections include more than 250,000 photographs, fieldnotes and shot logs and field audio recordings.{{cite web|title=Guide to the Collections of the Human Studies Film Archives: Introduction|url=http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/film_intro.htm|publisher=National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives|accessdate=25 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514213711/http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/film_intro.htm|archive-date=14 May 2013|url-status=dead}} The HSFA holds the major ethnographic film collections of John Marshall's films with Ju/'hoan Bushmen (!Kung), Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon's films of the Yanomami of Brazil, Jorge Preloran's work, and films by David and Judith MacDougall.

Directors of the National Anthropological Film Center/Human Studies Film Archives have included:

E. Richard Sorenson (1975-) {{cite journal|last=Sorenson|first=E. Richard|title=To Further Phenomenological Inquiry: The National Anthropological Film Center|journal=Current Anthropology|date=June 1975|volume=16|issue=2|pages=267–269|jstor=2741128|doi=10.1086/201547|s2cid=144891901}}

Robert Leopold

Jake Homiak (-2018)

• National Anthropological Archives

• [https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/anthropology/collections-overview/anthropology-archives National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives on the Anthropology Collections and Archives page at the National Museum of Natural History]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100211024809/http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/film_toc.htm HSFA Guide to Collections]
• [http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/films-preserved-through-the-nfpf National Film Preservation Foundation]

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Category:Film archives in the United States

Category:Smithsonian Institution museums

Category:1975 establishments in the United States

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