I’m Ben Kolak, a documentary filmmaker with Scrappers Film Group, and board member of Media Burn. I use the Media Burn Archive constantly: for historical reference, for licensing one-of-a-kind footage, for teaching media literacy, and just for enjoyment. And I couldn’t be more excited about Media Burn’s future as the premiere independent video archive.
It’s a daunting time to be a politically engaged mediamaker. History matters more now than ever, as divisions seeded in previous generations flare up in new ways in our image-obsessed present. That’s why Media Burn’s model – preserving the on-the-ground reality of how we got here, and making that material relevant to educators, media makers, and the public – fills a crucial need, particularly as other media archives fall through the cracks with the erasure of traditional journalism.
Videotape was a democratic revolution unlike any other, and yet so many tapes lie rotting away in basements while the clock is ticking – many will soon become unplayable unless converted. That’s why its so crucial to support Media Burn, to keep this buoy of video truth afloat as others get mortgaged, Tronc-ed, and corporatized into irrelevance, and also to keep Media Burn afire, to help us better understand our past, and project a brighter future.
Ben Kolak
co-founder, Scrappers Film Group
board member, Media Burn Archive
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