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Library of Congress acquires ephemeral film collection
WITH OVER 150,000 CANS AND REELS OF film in his possession, Rick Prelinger took the term "film buff" to a whole new level. Since 1982 Prelinger has been archiving completed and unedited footage of ephemeral films (amateur, educational, industrial) in his main storage facility in New York City's wholesale meat market district (Where else are you going to find a freezer big enough to preserve that much film?) Last August he sent it on to a better place, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Though he loved the convenience of having all that great material just a shelf away, Prelinger decided the archives would be better taken care of if he handed them over to a large public...