Karan Sheldon and David Weiss

2003 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize Recipients

Sheldon and Weiss of Northeast Historic Film cited for "extraordinary contributions to the preservation and interpretation of New England's moving image history."

Karan Sheldon & David Weiss to be Honored at Carlson Award Luncheon September 18 at the Page Farm & Home Museum in Orono.

The Maine Humanities Council announces that Karan Sheldon and David Weiss, co-founders of Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, are the 2003 recipients of the Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize. They are being recognized for their extraordinary contributions to the preservation and interpretation of New England's historic moving image history.

According to Dorothy Schwartz, Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council, "Karan and David's first big project in Maine, funded in part by the Council, was the restoration of an amateur historic movie, From Stump to Ship: A 1930 Logging Film. They toured the state with the film and drew thousands of Mainers, many of whom shared vivid memories of work in the Maine woods. We are thrilled that this film was recently awarded a place in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Their success with From Stump to Ship prompted Sheldon and Weiss to found Northeast Historic Film in 1986. It is now the leading regional non-profit film archive in the U.S."

Alamo Theater

Sheldon and Weiss will be honored at a luncheon on September 18th at the Page Farm & Home Museum in Orono. Gregory Lukow, Chief of the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division in Washington D.C., will be the guest speaker. He will be joined by State Senator Mary Cathcart of Orono. For tickets and more information about the luncheon, call the Maine Humanities Council at 207-773-5051.

Northeast Historic Film is located at the Alamo Theater, built in 1916. Sheldon and Weiss have restored the historic cinema and have been showing both contemporary and historic films there since 1999. A $5 million capital campaign is underway for a new Conservation and Study Center to provide scholars and the public with a wider range of technical services and to preserve film footage that would otherwise be lost. For more information about Northeast Historic Film, visit www.oldfilm.org.

Alamo Theater, interior

The Maine Humanities Council created the Constance H. Carlson Award to commemorate a friend who believed in the power of the humanities to enrich our lives. Previous winners are Tabitha King and Billie Gammon. Carlson (1915-1997) was the first female president of a University of Maine System campus. A graduate of Bangor High School, she received an A.B. from Vassar College, an M.A. from University of Maine, and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Brown University. In 1975 she was a founding member of the Maine Humanities Council. A private, non-profit organization, the Maine Humanities Council is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the home of the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book.