It has been an extremely busy few months here at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive: in June we received our official 501(c)(3) status, which was a few months ahead of schedule! We were prepared to wait several months to hear back from the IRS as was instructed on their website, but we were extremely pleasantly surprised to get the good news only 6 days after we filed the paper work.
As the only MARMIA staff member, there was so much for me to do! But I still had to wrap up a full time contract gig at the National Aquarium which just ended last week. Starting next week, I will not only hold the title of President and CEO of MARMIA, but also the title of Director of Public Programs and Outreach at the Old Greenbelt Theatre in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Old Greenbelt Theatre is a one-screen historic movie theatre that shows both contemporary films as well as diverse and community-based programming. They have the ability to show DCPs in addition to 35mm changeover and 16mm motion picture film. The theatre also recently acquired the Prince George’s County Public Library 16mm Circulating Collection that will be incorporated into regular programming. You can watch a video by filmmaker Jeff Krulik about this collection and its creator, Kent Moore, on Youtube.
Through this new position at the Old Greenbelt Theatre, I will work to develop a partnership between MARMIA and the theatre to help preserve and provide access to the region’s moving images and recorded sounds. This past October I was fortunate enough to visit and tour the Northeast Historic Film Archive (NHF) in Bucksport, Maine, along with their accompanying one-screen historic theatre, the Alamo. The success of the Northeast Historic Film Archive and the Alamo Theatre is an inspiration and direct model for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive and the Old Greenbelt Theatre. I am extremely excited about this new opportunity and potential for growth.
Please enjoy photos from my visit to NHF and the Alamo Theatre, and stay tuned as we update on other recent MARMIA activities of the past few months!
