CELLULOID AFTERLIFE

CELLULOID AFTERLIFE is an in-progress documentary project that profiles niche archives and cinematheques as they fight to save, preserve, and revive the last remnants of our analog film culture.  The uncertainly of film’s lifespan—its vulnerability to chemical decay and the poor conditions in which much of it sits—makes the search and rescue all the more urgent.  But cataloguing, canning, and placing in cold storage is only half the battle. Films must be given new life; they must re-engage with new audiences to become relevant again.  The people and organizations featured here approach these challenges in different ways.  But all have the same goal in mind--to reintroduce lost and forgotten films to the world.

Emphasizing an eclectic range of films and film formats—8mm home movies, 16mm industrial and educational films, and 35mm theatrical features—CELLULOID AFTERLIFE will offer a detailed overview of contemporary film archival practices, highlighting aspects of our cinematic past that might be entirely forgotten were it not for the efforts of organizations and individuals like those featured here.

CELLULOID AFTERLIFE is very much a sequel to my previous two films: THE DYING OF THE LIGHT and FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM!. The documentary is the culmination of what has been a long-standing (and wide-raging) exploration into the life, death, and afterlife of analog film.

Peter Flynn

November, 2025

Thus far the focus has been on organizations and individuals in the New England area.  This will expand in the coming year. Participants include:

NORTHEAST HISTORIC FILM

David Weiss, Jane Donnell, Joe Gardner, Emma Prichard, Karin Carlson-Snider,

Phil Yates, and Bryce Goodro

with

Abbott & Nancy Meader

Stu Silverstein, Richard Searls, Huey

Ed Lorusso and Max Langstaff

KINONIK

Andy Graham, Skylar Kelly

THE GAYETY THEATRE

Dayton Grandmaison, Jason Grandmaison

Located in Bucksport, ME, Northeast Historic Film is a regional film archive founded in 1986 to collect, preserve, and share moving images of interest to the people of Northern New England.  The three-story state-of-the-art archive houses one of the largest collections of amateur filmmaking in the world.  In addition to its preservation efforts, NHF also owns and operates the historic Alamo Theatre, built in 1916.

Vinegar Syndrome is a film restoration and distribution company with a dedicated archive of genre and exploitation films.

Kinonik is a nonprofit microcinema dedicated to preserving the communal experience of watching 16mm and 35mm films, drawn from a large in-house collection of titles.  It is one of a growing number of micro-cinemas and cinematheques devoted to the presentation of analog film.

The Gayety Theatre in Van Buren, Maine operated from 1920 to 1983.  Derelict for many decades, the building is now being renovated by Jason and Dayton Grandmasion, whose parents ran the theater from the early 1960s until it closed. 

Ed Lorusso is a private film historian/restorationist who works with film archives in the US and abroad--including Northeast Historic Film--to acquire, restore, and make available for screening early silent films shot in Maine.