Bruce Jenkins

As an undergraduate working for the New York University cinema studies department, Bruce Jenkins operated a technological device that has...

As an undergraduate working for the New York University cinema studies department, Bruce Jenkins operated a technological device that has changed but little in the last century: the film projector. "I love it--it's the last vestige of the machine age in contemporary use," he says. "A decade from now, when film has become nothing but digital information on a screen, the only place to have that celluloid-based experience with that creaky machine will be in a film archive or museum." As the new curator of the Harvard Film Archive, succeeding its founder, Vlada Petric, Jenkins is steward of more than 5,000 films, the vast majority in 35-millimeter theatrical format. The archive will soon join the international association of film archives; Jenkins also hopes to raise its public profile. He comes to Harvard after 14 years as curator of film and video at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and with a Ph.D. in radio, television, and film from Northwestern. His academic specialty is experimental and avant-garde films, of which he cites one "gorgeous" example: Stan Brakhage's Mothlight, made sans camera, using "nothing but moth wings, blades of grass, and leaves pressed between strips of Mylar." He notes that "Hollywood is the dominant cinema, but it's not the only cinema and certainly not the most interesting cinema. Some of the greatest films ever made have been done by individuals--and for very little money." For pleasure he enjoys reading, bicycling--and film festivals. "This has been the century of cinema," he says. "Today, a film archive is what a classics department was a hundred years ago. Cinema is the Rosetta Stone of a culture increasingly based on moving images."

 

Most popular

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Explore More From Current Issue

Renaissance portrait of young man thought to be Christoper Marlowe with light beard, wearing ornate black coat with gold buttons and red patterns.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Colorful illustration of woman multitasking with laptop, baby bottle, toy, and checklist.

Motherhood and Ambition in a Pronatalist World

Gen Z is confronting the age-old question of balance—with a new twist.

Illustration of college students running under a large red "MAGA" hat while others look on with some skeptisim.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.