ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that film archives are sites of mediation and interaction. It aims to make the case for understanding the practice of film history as one necessarily bound to the close analysis and writing of film archives. Archives shape film artifacts and our experiences of those artifacts. Each archive makes choices and leaves impressions. Archives structure our encounter with film history in fundamental ways. The power of the archive is never as simple or monolithic as Derrida imagines. Crucially, film historians also interact with film archives. Film history is always mediated. The task of the film historian is not to conceal those sites of mediation or deny their existence, but understand and critique them, make them visible and available for further thought and reflection. Many cities and towns have municipal archives or historical societies that preserve photographs and films of local interest.
