"MEMORIZING MIX" is a multi-year archival project aimed at the preservation of experimental lesbian and gay film and video.

In this first year, we are completing a survey of all the makers who have presented work at MIX NYC: The New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival. The survey will seek to determine the original format, editing format and printing/copying format of the work, the location of original and printing/copying materials, the condition of these materials and information relating to the preservation and storage of those materials. We expect to distribute this survey by regular and e-mail. Because of the low response rate associated with mailed surveys, we plan to follow this up with an intense telephone survey. Under ordinary circumstances, 100% compliance would be an impossibility. Further, the perilous state of lesbian and gay experimental work will provide even greater difficulties, but we will endeavor to make contact with every single one of the living makers and as many heirs as possible.

This survey is an absolutely crucial aspect of this project. The information gathered in this survey will be used to design an on-going preservation program that would begin in the second year of this project and aim to preserve the most endangered work. Without gathering information first, a preservation program would devolve into either guessing which films/videos or picking particular makers based on reputation. Further, the information garnered by the survey will have much wider use because it will furnish important evidence of the state of independent film/video generally and will serve as a model for other projects aimed at preserving work of other marginal communities and of alternative media more generally. Results of the survey and the conclusions that can be drawn from it will be immediately published on our website and we will endeavor to present this information at relevant professional organizations (i.e., the Association of Moving Image Archivists), gay scholarly conferences and to find appropriate print outlets for articles about it. This will help to create a more widespread understanding of the urgency of preservation activities.

The work that has been presented by MIX ranges from acknowledged classics of the underground (Un Chant d'Amour, Portrait of Jason, Blow Job, etc.), re-discovered gems of the avant-garde (the MIX '98 showing of Lupe is generating numerous inquiries regarding the film), the early work of more recently prominent makers (Todd Haynes, Gus Van Sant, Cheryl Dunye, etc.), the funkiest of Super-8 guerrilla filmmaking (Anie Super-8 Stanley, Bruce La Bruce, etc.), to the latest computer-based and video experimentation. This work has had an outsized influence on the larger film/video/TV world. These works are not only in physical danger but also in danger of being forgotten and overlooked despite their influence. The importance of the festival as a showcase of important new work has been acknowledged by tributes by the Berlin International Film Festival, London, Tokyo and San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals and numerous shows at such venues as Scratch Projection (Paris), London Film-makers Co-op, and the Kino Arsenal (Berlin).

MIX NYC: The New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival has presented work over the past 12 years. In that time, we have shown approximately 750 works by more than 300 makers. Approximately 50% of these are New York State makers. So this survey encompasses an important piece of New York State film/video history as well. If we wanted to recreate any of our festivals, especially the earlier ones, we would be unable to find at least 10% of the work. Another 25% of the work would be extremely difficult to find. At least 20 of the makers we have shown are dead. If this much work has been effectively lost over a decade, how much more will be lost if we neglect it for the next few decades?

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