David Weiss |
David S. Weiss is the co-founder and executive director of Northeast Historic Film, a non-profit moving image archives located in Bucksport, Maine. Since its founding in 1986, NHF has built collections including more than 10 million feet of film and 8,000 hours of videotape. The facility includes a three-story moving image vault building, technical services section, study center and the Alamo Theater.
From 1989 to 2011 Weiss served as a member of the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board and is a founding member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. At various times he served as a member of the board of the Blue Hill Memorial Hospital and George Stevens Academy.
In 1978 he graduated from Brown University, Providence, RI with a BA in Semiotics; the theoretical, historical and practical study of film arts, communication and language. After working in media production for several years he formed an independent production company. Productions included the award winning documentary Woodsmen & River Drivers (Gold Medal, New York International Film Festival) which was aired on PBS stations nationwide. A related restoration project From Stump to Ship: A 1930 Logging Film was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress.
- Co-Principal Investigator of two National Science Foundation grants, totaling $674,000 to document and preserve an audio visual record of the Passamaquoddy Language, 2006-10 Director, $340,000 NEH Preservation grant for collections stabilization, 2004-5
- Planned and carried out construction of $1,800,000 Conservation Center, opened August 2003.
- Director, $500,000 NEH Challenge Grant for institutional capacity building, facilities development and endowment growth.
- Director, “Preservation and Access to Maine’s Television Collections,” a 3-year $241,000 project with lead funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
- In 2019, completed $322,000 grant from the Council for Library and Information Resources titled: "The Woman Behind the Camera, Amateur Film and Home Movies taken by Women, 1925-1997"
