I became interested in DSSRF because it is perfect for my research project goals for this summer—uniting the humanities and digital work while receiving guidance from professional librarians who have extensive experience with archival work. My project for this summer is the result of almost two years of work as part of the Japanese Paper Films research project with Professor Eric Faden. I have done a great deal of processing, digitizing, and other work for the project, but I have always wanted the time and space to specifically research the live-action films in our collection, and DSSRF is my chance to do that!
The idea of my project is to try to find the source films for the live-action paper films currently in our collection. I want to study the films for patterns and tendencies among the different studios producing paper films. The animated paper films are always original products of those studios; however, the situation with live-action films is completely different. All of the live-action films were copied from preexisting 35mm celluloid prints, meaning that the original films were made by different studios and then copied by the studios producing paper films. We have a very wide variety of these films: Japanese silent action and historical drama films, Western films ranging from westerns to war dramas, war actualities and archival footage, Japanese travelogues, educational films, and more. I want to categorize them and identify the original titles of all the live-action films we currently have. There will most definitely be some very interesting and unexpected discoveries!
Because of my limited access to archives in Japan and the language barrier, I decided to first concentrate on identifying the original source films for the titles that we believe are Western. I am also going to research films that were altered and edited after already being transferred and printed in their paper film form. Two specific films that I am currently interested in are numbers 727 and 728 in our catalogue. I am also planning to create a map where people will be able to see where certain films came from, meaning the original country of production, among many other things. This research project will definitely continue beyond this summer; however, my goal during my time at DSSRF is to identify at least five (or more!) source films and focus on finding the titles of 727 and 728.
I am looking forward to learning how to use website-building tools and other digital tools that will be useful for my research, as well as learning how to search for source films with the very limited information we have about them. I am also really looking forward to seeing how the projects of the other DSSRF fellows develop during our time together and beyond! I am very excited—and partially scared—to see where my research process will take me and how this project will develop and grow over the upcoming eight weeks!
Still image from the film number 728 from the Japanese Paper Films Project collection