In 2013 The Filson, with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation and members of the community, carried out an important project to continue to preserve historic films from the Judge Arthur E. Hopkins Collection. Judge Arthur E. Hopkins (1881-1944) was a Louisville attorney, judge, alderman and member of the Board of Directors of The Filson with a passion for film and photography.

Amongst the thousands of still photographs Hopkins bequeathed to The Filson were 39 reels of 16mm film. Continuing previous preservation efforts (a 2010 NFPF grant that allowed four films to be preserved), for the past year Filson archivists have worked to bring several of these historic Louisville films back to life. Join us at this talk and screening to learn more about The Filson’s film collection, our preservation and digitization efforts, and to see the magic of history come to life with the premiere showing of three of the digitized Hopkins films.