"You can have the world's greatest archives, but if you have no way for people to use the material, then you're not really serving your function," says Dr. Eric Schaefer, a film historian and new member of the Northeast Historic Film Board of Advisors.

Creating an NHF Study Center, Schaefer believes, is a way of saying, " 'Our doors are open, come in, make use of our material.' And that's important for any kind of an archives."

"At least, the bones are there," says NHF co-founder Karan Sheldon: the videos, the books and other documents, the finding aids and viewing facilities at the Alamo, all available for research use. "So we're open as a no-frills center. But we need to complete the space, add staff, build the library, and acquire more technology." Ultimately, she hopes, the NHF Study Center will offer a variety of activities and even formal study opportunities.

The participation of a scholar/advisor like Schaefer is key to planning and operating the envisioned Study Center. An assistant professor in the Visual and Media Arts Department at Emerson College, Schaefer brings to NHF an impressive resume that includes the forthcoming book "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959 (Duke University Press).

Schaefer joined the NHF Advisors in March, but his involvement goes back to 1992, when he and his wife, Eithne Johnson, discovered the Alamo during a vacation. Schaefer was a consultant to the Going to the Movies exhibition project and gave a talk in 1996 at the Maine Mall, in South Portland. In the NHF's video archives is a 1993 interview with Theresa Cantin, who owned and ran a theater in New Hampshire for 60 years, that Schaefer co-produced.

What's a Scholar to Do?

An obvious step for Northeast Historic Film, the development of the Study Center becomes more urgent as the word spreads about both these archives and the field of moving-image preservation. In the realm of film history, "it seems to me that one of the really big areas left untouched is regional film," says Schaefer, "and the history of regional movements and regional exhibition. NHF is well-situated as interest grows."

What is a scholar's role in developing the Study Center? First, Schaefer's experience as a moving-image researcher will inform the design and outfitting of the center. As a potential user of the center, "I'm able to give some guidance into what scholars are looking for when they roll up to an archive," he says. That could encompass a "wish list" of reference materials, and practical suggestions for layout and equipment.

"I don't think it has to be a tremendously large space," Schaefer suggests. "Enough to accommodate three or four people at a time without bumping into each other." Accompanying the finding aids and research materials themselves, the well-equipped study center will have work tables, carrels and tape-viewing equipment, and, in a perfect world, a Steenbeck for viewing reference prints.

A second role for the scholar involves acquisitions: evaluating, authenticating, filling in the historical context and even supplying leads to potential donations. In fact, Schaefer spent a few rainy days last summer helping assess a donation of materials by fellow NHF Advisor Q. David Bowers, of Wolfeboro, NH.

Bowers' donation includes books, early posters, musical scores for silent films, promotional stills dating from the silent era through the 1950s, movie magazines and scholarly journals, and business records from a theater in New Hampshire--a "treasure trove," as Schaefer describes it, for students of regional film exhibition.

Not for Experts Only

Finally, and not surprisingly, Schaefer also foresees a scholarly role in guiding educational direction and programming for the Study Center. While the Study Center will serve academic, historical and industry researchers, it will also embrace local students, as NHF's outreach efforts have done for years.

"NHF is well-positioned in New England to act as an interface between the public and scholars--to really help people understand their relationship with movies," he says. "I hope that I'll be able to help in that respect, helping to develop educational programs."

Schaefer adds, "At the junior high and high school levels, often students are not encouraged to think about film or about television in a serious way--even though, clearly, they're such important facets of our culture." Because it's entertainment, he says, it's not examined closely or thoughtfully.

"Kids, in particular, need to start thinking about it in a more serious way at an earlier age," he continues. "That doesn't necessarily mean taking the fun out of it, but acknowledging what a central role movies play in the way we use our time, in the way in which we construct our identity, in the films we like and watch."

Schaefer sees the NHF Study Center pioneering such exploration. "We will begin to reach out to the schools in a way which you don't see happening in other parts of the country. That could serve as a model for other regional archives, as well as large repositories across the country. They could begin to open themselves up to a whole new class of interested users."