About
Kirsten Larvick’s work explores the profound relationship between past and present. Through preservation, curation, and restoration, she safeguards motion picture history while expanding access to a more wide-ranging cinematic record.
As Managing Director at IndieCollect, Kirsten leads key preservation initiatives focused on filmmaker legacies. She develops funding strategies for restoring films by women directors and other independent artists, secures grants, and builds relationships with distributors. Her work also extends to artist estate planning, facilitating the acquisition and donation of film collections to partner archives, and contributing to IndieCollect’s public programming. Founded to rescue and sustain independent cinema, IndieCollect ensures that these films remain discoverable and watchable for future generations.
A dedicated advocate for film preservation, Kirsten co-chairs the Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) of New York Women in Film & Television and serves on its Grants Selection Committee. The WFPF is the world’s only program devoted to preserving the cultural legacy of women in the motion picture industry specifically through film preservation. Her deep commitment to safeguarding moving image heritage led her to establish the Al Larvick Fund, a nonprofit that supports the conservation and accessibility of home movies through digitization grants, documentation, and public screenings.
Autonomously, Kirsten acts as an independent producer of film restorations. Recent 4K restorations as a producer include, One Hand Don’t Clap (1988), Wild at Art (1995), and Building Bombs (1990). She supervises and consults on restoration and archiving projects for many independent filmmakers.
Her curatorial efforts have brought archival programming to institutions such as Anthology Film Archives, the City Reliquary Museum, Metrograph, the Museum of Modern Art, UnionDocs, in New York, and the Barbican in London. She has also produced film and multimedia exhibitions, as well as preservation events, at festivals, regional libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and community centers across the U.S. and internationally.
Since 2022, Kirsten has served on the board of directors for UnionDocs, a nonprofit dedicated to presenting, producing, and publishing documentary works. UnionDocs fosters a diverse community of artists in pursuit of urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on contemporary issues, and bold visions for the future.
Kirsten has also served as a panelist on the Individual Artist Program in Film, Media & New Technology for New York State Council of the Arts for two consecutive three-year terms.
With a foundation in documentary film production, her early experience includes research, producing, editorial and outreach roles on Look at Us Now Mother; Bettie Page Reveals All; Singers in the Band; Young Lakota.
Beyond preservation, Kirsten explores themes of time, memory, identity, heritage, myth, and mortality through her own creative documentary projects. Fiddling with archival materials—analog film, video, ephemera, and memorabilia—she puts together stories that look to interrogate the ephemeral nature of history and personal narrative.
@kirsten_studio
#regionalfilmmaking #womeninfilm #documentaryarts #archivalarts #archives #preservation #handmadecinema #feministfilm #communicationstudies #culturalstudies #anthropology #archeology #psychology #savecinema
The Journal of the Moving Image Archivists | Funding Opportunities | Spring 2023, edition 23 1 and Fall 2023 edition 23 2
Laemmle Monica Film Center | IndieCollect’s RescueFest, Santa Monica, CA, USA
The Municipal Cultural Center Glória Maria | Building Bombs, 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro summit, Rio de Janeiro, BR
Association of Moving Image Archivists | A Decade of Preservation: Al Larvick Fund’s Home Movie Collaborations | In Plain Sight! Women Directors: Restoration Case Studies annual conference, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Hollywood Theatre | Building Bombs restoration, Portland, OR, USA
Watershed | The Women’s Film Preservation Fund presents Liane Brandon Cinema Rediscovered screening & workshop discussion, Bristol, UK
KINO Rotterdam | One Hand Don’t Clap Rotterdam, NL
Jacob Burns Film Center | New York Through Her Lens Restored & Rediscovered: A Preservation Film Festival, Pleasantville, NY, USA
Modern Art Museum (MAM Rio) | Building Bombs Restoration World Premiere, Uranium Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, BR
MoMA PS1 | Wild at Art Pacita Abad exhibit & tour, New York, NY, USA
Brooklyn Academy of Music | One Hand Don’t Clap Brooklyn, NY, USA
Metropolitan Archivist | Community Testimony: Gathering Veteran Performer Histories During a Pandemic It’s So Over/We’re So Back Winter 2024 issue
Archival Methods | Home Movies: A Window in Every Frame
Anthology Film Archives | Chronicling & Creating: Home Movies & Hobbyist Filmmaking, New York, NY, USA
The City Reliquary Museum | The Latin Quarter Revue: Behind the Curtain exhibit, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Watershed | One Hand Don’t Clap Cinema Rediscovered, UK Restoration Premiere, Bristol & UK tour
Walker Art Center | Wild at Art Pacita Abad exhibit & tour, US Restoration Premiere, USA
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) | One Hand Don’t Clap World Premiere, To Save & Project Film Festival, New York, NY, USA
Metropolitan Archivist | Home Movies for the Queer Community Participant | Observer Winter 2021 issue
Kino Lorber | Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers box set
Sheila Paige Films | Rescuing Cinema on the Margins film collection study guide