A still from 306 Hollywood, a film by sibling filmmakers Jonathan Bogarín and Elan Bogarín, which documents the brother and sister inventorying and archiving items from their deceased grandmother’s Newark, New Jersey, home.
By Archives team
While October ushers in the spooky season, it is also the month that we archivists look forward to all year: Archives Month. Archives Month is an opportunity for our profession to celebrate and raise awareness about the value of preservation and the effort that goes into making sure stories and pieces of history are not lost to time.
In honor of Archives Month, we are highlighting a selection of Festival films that showcase archivists (as well as librarians) at work, safeguarding and creating access to cultural heritage and information, while also providing opportunities to explore, learn, and better understand the world around us. We have also included a selection of documentaries that have integrated archival footage to shape and enrich the storytelling around the films’ subjects.
The films, subjects, and characters featured in part showcase the breadth of vital work and the many hats librarians and archivists wear. From personal to community and academic to national archives and libraries, they each provide a critical service to their communities – helping to ensure history, storytelling, and information are preserved and accessible.
These Amazing Shadows (2011 Sundance Film Festival)
The Librarians (2025 Sundance Film Festival)
306 Hollywood (2018 Sundance Film Festival)
How to Build a Library (2018 Sundance Film Festival)
Kim’s Video (2023 Sundance Film Festival)
Party Girl (1995 Sundance Film Festival)
Additionally, without the work of archives around the world and their staff, many filmmakers would be without the footage, photographers, oral histories, and ephemera that bring some of the incredible documentaries audiences know and love to life. The value of archives is evident in the many impactful stories/films told through the cultural heritage they safeguard. Here are just a few of the many documentaries that have showcased the power of archives:
Senna (2011 Sundance Film Festival)
The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1999 Sundance Film Festival)
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing (2025 Sundance Film Festival)
The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1999 Sundance Film Festival)
Fire of Love (2022 Sundance Film Festival)
APOLLO 11 (2019 Sundance Film Festival)
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003 Sundance Film Festival)
Another critical aspect of archivists’ work includes restoration. More specifically, film restoration sees archives actively working hand-in-hand with filmmakers and distributors to not only help restore seminal work, but also make it available for future generations. The recently announced Park City Legacy program at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival includes seven titles from past Festivals that have all been restored, giving audiences the opportunity to discover and rediscover the films that have shaped the heritage of both Sundance Institute and independent storytelling.
Find out more about the 2026 Sundance Film Festival’s Park City Legacy program here.
