There are two dominant philosophies in film preservation. Some follow French curator Henri Langlois, who believed that every frame has value. Others hew closer to British archivist Ernest Lindgren, who rejected Langlois’ romantic approach for a more scientific, curated approach.
Texas Archive of the Moving Image Managing Director Elizabeth Hansen jokes that her organization is more like Langlois than her fellow, more Lindgrenian Baker Center tenants, the American Genre Film Archive. After all, although they share the same office, the two nonprofits have different remits. TAMI was founded in 2002 to rescue anything and everything on film or video from around Texas, from home movies to news reels, PSAs, and commercials. Meanwhile, AGFA began as a home for the vast collection of 35mm prints collected by Tim League that were the backbone of early Alamo Drafthouse programming. TAMI puts all its material online for all viewers and researchers to access via their website. AGFA has grown to become a full-scale distribution house, both for their own archive and for partner labels like Vinegar Syndrome, Shout! Factory, and Deaf Crocodile. AGFA print traffic manager and producer Tiernan O’Rourke said, “We have a great theatrical team and they do an amazing job of keeping all these bookings of all these titles.”
In raw terms, TAMI handles over 1,000 pieces of footage every year, while AGFA is working in much smaller numbers for both theatrical and their growing Blu-ray catalog. But both Hansen and O’Rourke are quick to point out that the similarities outweigh the differences: not least their shared dedication to saving the ephemera of visual history.
AGFA was one of the very first tenants at Baker in 2019, sharing offices with the Alamo staff, and when they moved out AGFA stayed around, “which was a lot nicer than having to load up trucks,” said O’Rourke.
Meanwhile, TAMI moved in literally weeks into the pandemic, and both have found their current dark and secluded shared archive space on the ground floor quite literally the perfect space. When TAMI first moved in, they had office space on the third floor with great light, which is exactly what a film preservation archive doesn’t need. Then there was the cellphone problem – the electromagnetic signal noise was interfering with the digitization process. So, it was either build a giant Faraday cage or switch offices. Hunting for the hum-free spot meant Hansen and her team “walked around the building with a projector and headphones, and we must have looked crazy.” Ultimately, the ground floor, with its thick, insulated walls and smaller windows, gave both TAMI and AGFA what they needed, and so they moved in together. Hansen laughed. “We’re back in the basement where we’re supposed to be.”
Moreover, there’s a symbiosis at play. AGFA and TAMI both use Lasergraphics brand film scanners, “so if anything goes wrong it’s really easy to troubleshoot for each other,” said O’Rourke. While TAMI mostly deals with videos, they can handle 8mm reels, so on those rare occasions when AGFA needs a smaller format the right equipment is literally within reach. Conversely, if TAMI receives a 35mm print, then AGFA is right next door. Most importantly, O’Rourke said, “We have a good bond, we have a good friendship, and we help each other out.”
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This article appears in January 23 • 2026.