When there are more than 42,000 items in a collection, choosing a favorite seems impossible. 然而蒂姆·哈克曼, ODU图书馆院长, rattled off several as he thought on the new video collection housed in the Perry Library as Naro Video @ ODU Libraries:
- “The Conversation” (which he calls the ultimate 1970s paranoia thriller);
- “路屋”(“最伟大的 伟大的烂片 ”);
- “Unforgiven” (for the line “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”); and
- “Magnolia” (in which Tom Cruise “chews the scenery like it’s a bag of beef jerky”).
蒂姆·库珀, along with retired ODU art history professor Linda McGreevy, donated the Naro collection to the University in 2020, loves what he calls the “bad movies” (even name-dropping noted cult classic filmmaker Ed Wood, Jr.).
McGreevy and Cooper also pointed out that “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, a series in which a man and his two robot companions trapped on a spaceship watch old B movies and riff on them, 是完整的收藏吗.
McGreevy also listed the 2010 British film “Jackboots on Whitehall,” a hilarious film 故事发生在二战期间 with puppets and stop motion, as a personal favorite.
Those are but a small sample of the treasures included in Naro Video @ ODU Libraries, 它于3月3日正式向公众开放, 2024. Hackman hopes the collection attracts students, faculty and researchers alike, while also tapping into the community equity the name “Naro” has long enjoyed i在诺福克的根特和拉奇蒙特地区.
Hackman also wants the collection to establish ODU Libraries as a major source of film-related research on the East Coast. In addition to providing one-of-a-kind sources for academia, research and 社区参与 以放映和节日的形式, he hopes the collection will attract future film-related gifts like its recent acquisition of screenwriter Arnold Schulman’s papers.
Another highlight of the collection lies in the availability of video resources to professors and students.
“If a student was interested in conducting research on filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, 罗老系列展示了他的全部目录,库珀说.
But at the same time, “it’s more than the academics,” McGreevy said, highlighting the importance of older movies and foreign films in the collection. “I think it’s incredibly important for people to stretch their imaginations and their experience through these films.”
Since many of the films and series included in the collection are not available through streaming, 它还有一个名为“不可流”的部分,这是数百个标题的深度. 一些标题, 比如凯文·史密斯的宗教恶搞“教条”,都陷入了法律纠纷, 而其他的, 比如经典动漫《最靠谱的网赌软件》,已经失去了发行权.
Others are “too provocative for sedate streaming sensibilities,克里斯·金说, NARO视频@ ODU图书馆的策展人. Namely, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salo” and Todd Solondz’s “Happiness.”
“All of these titles are essential pieces of cinema under real threat of being lost in the switchover to direct digital distribution,金说.
Amid the rampant digitization of media and efforts to police content, collections like Naro Video @ ODU Libraries take the opposite approach. McGreevy spoke of a German film titled “Taxi zum Klo,” which openly depicts a gay man and prompted a visit from the police when the film was shown at the Naro Theater in the 1980s.
“Taxi zum Klo”也是这个系列的一部分.
“While I love the ease and convenience of streaming,哈克曼说, “I’m also growing increasingly frustrated by its ephemeral nature and concerned that large parts of our collective artistic heritage could be lost at any moment due to a corporate merger, 一个失效的合同，甚至是一个技术故障.”
为此目的, ODU教员, staff and students can check out materials from the Naro collection with their University ID card. 社区 members can join Friends of the ODU Libraries for $50 (individual) or $100 (family) a year 每周看三部电影. 图书馆还出租DVD播放机.
Beyond the academic benefits, preserving the experience of renting videos 汉普顿路社区 was of paramount importance to McGreevy and Cooper.
“We could have sent the collection to NYU,” said McGreevy. “There was some interest there, and I said, ‘No, that’s too far away.’ It’s nice to be at NYU, but that doesn’t help anybody around here.”
With the collection now available to the public for the first time in years, all involved hope the interest and the access leads to future fundraising opportunities, more film festivals and more contributions from the greater film community. In addition, the “Naro Minded” public screening series, established in 2022, will continue.
There’s also the chance that, like vinyl records, physical media will see a similar resurgence. 在这方面, Naro Video @ ODU Libraries is more than just a window to the past, 而是一座连接现在和未来的桥梁.
“Nothing ever completely goes away,” said McGreevy.
“没什么好东西，”库珀补充道. “Anything that needs to be said, it’s said in the collection.”