Madison, WI
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is one of the world’s major archives of research materials relating to the entertainment industry. We preserve historical records and personal papers, twenty thousand motion pictures, television shows, and videotapes; two million still photographs and promotional graphics; and several thousand sound recordings.
Header Photo: reels of film stacked on a shelf
Profile Photo: A black and red "W" stylized as a strip of film
| Location | 816 State Street Madison, WI |
| Website | https://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu |
Please read the article, use our collections, and make a donation to support our work if you can:
"UW–Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research preserves priceless materials from the entertainment industry.”
Read the profile of the WCFTR published on the UW-Madison News site today: https://news.wisc.edu/a-global-hub-for-hollywood-history/
The article shares insights into our past. It also shares our recent successes, challenges, and fundraising efforts as we adapt to federal funding cuts.
We are aware of issues that users are experiencing when attempting to access many of our websites, including the Media History Digital Library and Lantern.
We are investigating the root cause and will provide further updates as we learn more about the situation. Please stay tuned to our social media feeds for more information.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
ICYMI: There's a new documentary about legendary television host Ed Sullivan and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. SUNDAY BEST, directed by Sacha Jenkins, uses materials from the WCFTR's collections to tell this important piece of entertainment history.
Now streaming on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/82048609
This week over 200 scholars, teachers, archivists, and creators will be participating in the inaugural Hollywood Conference. Whether you're attending the conference or just following along via social media, check out this list of online resources that WCFTR Director Eric Hoyt has compiled for studying Hollywood's rich and storied history.
An extraordinary gathering is taking place this week at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Over 200 scholars, teachers, archivists, and creators will be participating in the inaugural Hollywood Conference. An ambitious …
This Sunday the UW Cinematheque (https://cinema.wisc.edu/events/a-cinema-16-anthology/) will be screening a program of shorts (held at the WCFTR) in tribute to Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 Society and its formidable influence for filmmaking beyond the mainstream. The program is Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m., at the Chazen Museum of Art — admission is free!
Read more about the program in the screening notes written by the WCFTR's own Matt St. John: https://cinema.wisc.edu/2025/04/22/cinema-16-a-taste-of-vogel/
It's been a whirlwind week here at the WCFTR, but through it all, we are immensely proud to be able to share with the world our new website to browse and explore hundreds of digitized tapes from Wendy Clarke's collection!
Wendy Clarke’s projects such as the Love Tapes, New York Tapes, and The Out Tapes continue to be influential with their elevation of individual voices. We hope you enjoy viewing and experiencing this incredible body of work!
Throughout the Love Tapes, Wendy invited participants into a small booth where they talked for three minutes about what love meant to them. The people who shared their views and experiences represent a wide expanse human experience; African Americans, Asian Americans, Puerto Ricans, and people of many other races and ethnicities all recorded love tapes. Members of New York City’s gay, lesbian, and transgender communities are also well-represented in Clarke’s work. The Love Tapes and much of Clarke’s work represents a model of participatory media culture that preceded the Web and the proliferation of social media; she offers a challenge to traditional cinematic canons and the narrow subset of voices which have traditionally been privileged. The WCFTR is pleased to be able to share the collection–now digitized, searchable, and richly described–with new audiences, allowing the voices within it to speak to us again.
And finally to bookend the panel, my great colleagues Eric Hoyt and Ashton Leach will share some specific examples of love tapes, as well as make the official “public debut” of our online version of Wendy Clarke’s collection: https://wendyclarke.wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu
Video artist Wendy Clarke's projects such as the Love Tapes, New York Tapes, and Growing Up Gay: The Out Tapes continue to be influential with their elevation of individual voices. Through her process, Clarke invited participation that gave individuals agency and never reduced them to stereotypes. Clarke's work represents a powerful archive of individual voices from marginalized communities.
In this recent blog post, Tanya Goldman continues to examine materials from WCFTR’s Amos Vogel collection and has compiled his numerous informal summaries and indexes of Cinema 16’s screenings to put together a list of titles from Cinema 16's early programs along with Vogel's own excerpts, program notes, and film credits.
The digitized materials discussed here – and many more! – are available online thanks to a NHPRC grant as well as other film archives and societies.
https://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/index.php/2025/03/17/revisiting-early-programming-at-cinema-16/
Ben Pettis