Film professors’ work now part of Duke University archives

New Day Films was founded in 1971 by (back, L-R) Amalie R. Rothschild, Julia Reichert, Jim Klein and (front) Liane Brandon.

The pioneering films of two Wright State University faculty members are part of a collection recently added to Duke University’s Archive of Documentary Arts. The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library has announced its recent acquisition of the New Day Films Collection.

Motion pictures professors Jim Klein and Julia Reichert, along with Amalie R. Rothschild and Liane Brandon, founded New Day Films in 1971.

Specializing in social-issue documentaries, New Day Films is a unique distribution company that has been run as a participatory, democratic filmmakers’ cooperative for four decades; today, the company distributes 250 titles for 120 member filmmakers.

One of the films in the collection, Reichert and Klein’s Growing Up Female, was recently selected for the National Film Registry.

The New Day Films Collection includes the founding films and organizational records of New Day founders. The collection includes Academy Award winners and nominees, Emmy Award winners, and hundreds of winning entries from film festivals around the world.

In celebration of New Day’s 40th anniversary, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C., will showcase a selection of the founders’ films on Friday, April 13, at 4:50 p.m., and host a panel conversation with all four founding members about New Day’s history on Saturday, April 14, at 9:30 a.m.

For more information on New Day Films, see http://www.newday.com/.