The Rescued Film Project is an online archive of images that were captured on film between the 1930’s and late 1990’s. Each image in their archive was recovered from found film from locations all over the world, and came to them in the form of undeveloped rolls of film. They have the capability to process film from all era’s. Even film that has been degraded by heat, moisture, and age. Or is no longer manufactured.
About 1.5+ years ago, they acquired 66 bundles of film containing 1200+ rolls of film. All of the film was shot the by same photographer. It was such a large acquisition that the founder of the Rescued Film Project, Levi Bettwieser, created an Indiegogo campaign (since ended) to raise funds for outside help to process it all.
From the Indiegogo campaign page, “even more interesting is the way in which this film was packaged. Each roll once shot, was placed back in it’s box with a hand written note detailing what was shot. Then the box was wrapped in several layers of aluminum foil, then athletic tape. Then the photographer wrote on the athletic tape what was on the film. Once the photographer had enough rolls like this, they were packed tightly in a cigar box then the cigar box was wrapped in multiple layers of newspaper, aluminum foil, and athletic tape and then once again labeled with the contents.”
Below is a beautifully done documentary about this magnificent find: