Using, Creating and Donating to Moving Image Archives

Since 1999, the DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) — the oldest independent film festival in Washington, DC — has showcased bold features, documentaries, shorts, animation, and experimental works from around the world. Reimagined in 2022 as an Annual Film Forum, DCIFF connects filmmakers and audiences through conversation, networking, and innovative programming in the Nation’s Capital.

DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF)

a) working with existing archival materials and b) conserving your own moving image material,and c) digitization and preservation formats

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

DC Independent Film Forum 2025 / Feb 12-17

DCIFF  brings the annual forum of films, workshops and discussions  to celebrate established and emerging talent in fiction, documentary and animation filmmaking. DCIFF --- keeping a truly independent spirit alive in the DMV for 26 years!

Panel 1 - Using Archival Film in Documentaries : 1pm-2.20pmCoffee BreakPanel 2 - Preserving and Donating your Film/video/digital formats: 1.40pm-4pm SpeakersChris Nicols is a Digital Asset Manager at the AARP and previously worked as the audio-visual archivist at the New York City Municipal Archives for roughly 6 years until the end of 2023 where he helped preserve the NYPD surveillance film collection, WNYC Radio and TV collections as well as the Channel L Working Group collection. He holds a Masters degree from NYU in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation and previously worked at Storycorps, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Miami-Dade College Wolfson Archive. Outside of work, he helped run the NYC local non-profit group XFR Collective, teaching workshops, seminars, organizing events and producing original creative works featuring archival footage for screenings around the city. He specializes in digitizing and managing collections of historical and documentary analog moving image material.Criss Austin is the Supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). In addition to completing digital preservation of William Wyler’s outtakes from The Memphis Belle: Story of a Flying Fortress she conducted forensic scanning of the Iwo Jima flag raising footage to assist in determining the identity of the Marines, and completed digital restoration of Eva Braun’s home movies. She is an active participant in multiple moving image professional organizations and in creating technical guidelines for archives, libraries, and museums. She holds degrees from Oberlin College, The Nottingham Trent University, and The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation.Nick Spark is a Los Angeles based writer, documentary filmmaker, historical researcher and founder of Periscope Film, which maintains one of the largest collections of historic military, aviation and transportation in the USA.Eric Schwartz has over 35 years of experience as a copyright attorney counseling on U.S. and foreign copyright law matters for emerging technological uses as well as “traditional media”. Eric has served as production counsel for numerous feature and documentary films and television programs and is an expert on film and recorded music archival legal and preservation issues. He is an adjunct professor and frequent guest lecturer on copyright law and related subjects, including serving on the faculty of American University Washington College of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center.

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