My name is Javier Servin and I am a recent graduate of the Moving Image Archive Studies (MIAS) program at UCLA. During my last quarter at UCLA, I had the opportunity to intern in the Library’s Preservation Unit AV Lab working with various audiovisual collections. I had a blast going through the different materials in the collections and learned a great deal from Siobhan Hagan, the Unit’s fearless leader and Audiovisual Preservation Specialist. While all the collections are important and contain infinite research opportunities, two of the collections stood out as my favorites to work with.
The first of my favorites is the Synanon Foundation Records collection, which consists of film, video and audio recordings of the foundation’s events and recruitment material. The Synanon Foundation was originally a drug rehabilitation program founded in Santa Monica in the late 1950s that eventually became an alternative community in the 1960s and ultimately a church in the 1970s before being disbanded in 1989 as a result of various criminal activities allegedly committed by its founder and members. I enjoyed working with this collection because it highlighted a segment of Los Angeles history that I personally had never come across.
In working with the Synanon collection, I updated the inventory of the materials so that it conformed to the newly adopted naming conventions of the Preservation AV Lab. I also inspected and rehoused some of the super 8mm reels and cartridges that contained films documenting and promoting the foundation’s activities. One such film is INSTANT GUIDE TO SYNANON (1973), which contains lots of funky transitions and animations. Loved it.
The second of my favorite collections is the SOUL Publications, Inc. collection, which consists of audio recordings of performances and interviews with different celebrities including Bill Cosby, Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross. My favorite recording is 1978 phone interview with Mick Jagger that captures a candid moment with his daughter (listen to the full interview). My work on this collection included comparing the documented running time of the clips against their actual running time and checking the links for each clip to ensure that they properly played. I enjoyed working with this collection because I got to listen to some fascinating sound bites from some of my favorite artists.
My time at the UCLA Library’s Preservation Unit was not only fun, but highly instructive. Siobhan strived to tailor the internship to meet my interests. For example, I expressed a desire to work with formats that I had no previous experience with and she made sure that I got plenty of practice handling Super 8mm film. Siobhan rocks and so does the internship at the Preservation Unit.