"What does a film curator do all day?"

Here's one way the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film reached out to its public. Watch the recording of the live stream video. Film curator Dave Kehr invited YouTube (and Instagram) users to submit questions, such as . . . 

MoMA posted this text on its YouTube channel youtube.com/watch?v=Icaitpbfi48:

LIVE Q&A with MoMA Film Curator Dave Kehr (July 25, 2018) 
– Send us  your questions!

Tune in today at 3:00 p.m. EDT for a Live Q&A with MoMA Film Curator Dave Kehr. What does it mean to be a Film curator at The Museum of Modern Art? What goes into the restoration of lost silent films? Dave will answer these and many more of your questions during the live-stream!
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The first question posed (by three people): "How do I become a film curator?"

"It's the big question," he begins. "I think the good news is there's no answer to that question. There is no real career path, educational path, to this particular job. I came from almost 40 years as a film critic writing for daily newspapers when the film department contacted me and asked me if I'd be interested in coming aboard. We have other members of the department who have started here as assistants and gradually worked their way up the ladder. We have other people who were trained at some of the archival programs at NYU or Rochester and have entered that way." 

NYU has our master's degree program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, part of the Department of Cinema Studies.  Rochester refers both to the U of R's master's degree and to the nine-month certificate program in the Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman Museum.

Q2: Is there a specific path of studies at a university to become a film curator?

"A good background in film history is definitely a must," Kehr offers first. "There are more technical pursuits. If you're interested in film preservation, that's a very distinct branch. Working with the film elements, with nitrate film, the negatives. That's something you can learn -- and probably should learn -- in a university environment. There are a number of programs around the country: UCLA, USC, Rochester, Indiana, all of them producing very fine people in that field."

"If you're more interested in programming side," among the things to do, he says: "Learn how to make a good argument."

Dave Kehr studied English at the University of Chicago in the 1970s, which had an active film society, Doc Films -- which he once headed. Doc Films remains an active volunteer-run institution.

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