FEATURE - PRESERVING FILM

Those home movies collecting dust in your attic could be historically valuable artifacts.

Abraham Zapruder's eight-millimeter film of the Kennedy assassination is only the most visible example of a home movie that changed the world.

Film archives, universities, and historical societies are brushing off old movies to see what they can tell us about our history. Many of these films and fragments are fading fast. Film preservation is a labor-intensive and costly enterprise.

The toughest task remains caring for films made before 1951, when the volatile chemical cellulose nitrate was used. Famously, Robert Flaherty's first version of Nanook of the North went up in flames, allegedly from a lit cigarette.

In 1996 President Clinton signed an act that gave birth to the National Film Preservation Foundation. Martin Scorsese and other filmmakers work with the foundation to save American films that could easily be neglected.

Everything from Groucho Marx home movies to an intimate portrait of Malcolm X have been preserved thanks to the foundation's efforts.