Early Film by John Kirch

John Kirch scrapbook page, photograph, Merrill Thrash, filming of *Postcard City*, Point State Park, Downtown Pittsburgh, PA, Spring 1969. Courtesy Steven Haines

CONSERVATION & CAPTURE

Grant year: 2023

Grant category: Al Larvick National Grant

Grant recipient: Pittsburgh Sound + Image/Steven Haines

Collection title: Early Film by John Kirch

Primary maker(s): John Kirch

Original format: 8mm, color, black & white, silent, sound

Circa: 1966-1972

Collection size: Hundreds of personal film and video elements, 1960s - 2000s

Grant support: Cleaning and repair and digital capture of approximately 1600 feet of film

Digital capture format: Scanned to 4K resolution

Lab: A/V Geeks

Status: Grant work in progress

Online Access: Coming soon

Creative Commons License: Coming soon

John Kirch scrapbook page, certificate of entry, the Eastman Kodak Company for *A Delusion*, 1971 Teen-Age Movie Awards. Courtesy Steven Haines

GRANTEE

Pittsburgh Sound + Image is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, formed in 2021 to create a film and video archive and cinema. Through preservation and exhibition, it is our mission to make local film history known and available to the public, alongside national and global artists who otherwise do not currently have outlets in Pittsburgh. Additionally, pghcinema.com, tracks and promotes all organizations hosting film events citywide, and retains a history of exhibition in the area.

FILMMAKER

John Kirch, 2019. Courtesy Steven Haines

John Kirch (1952 - 2021) was a lifelong movie lover and Pittsburgher. As a teenager, he appeared as a zombie in Night of the Living Dead (1968).

John made 8mm films with his friends. In his early 20s, he formalized his training behind the camera by attending California Institute of the Arts.

After returning to Pittsburgh in the late 1970s, he became a fixture of the city’s burgeoning punk rock music and filmmaking scenes, documenting key people with his 16mm camera and entertaining audiences with his proto-microcinema evenings of 16mm cartoons and camp.

Much of the second half of John’s life was spent as an editor. Professionally, he cut film and video for local news station KDKA for 35 years. He was one of the most well-regarded negative conformers in the region.

In his personal time, he carefully wove together footage of travels with his wife Bernie.

Paper flyer for John Kirch’s microcinema service, Bridgeville, PA, circa 1979. Courtesy Steven Haines

COLLECTion

The John Kirch collection housed with Pittsburgh Sound + Image is comprised of the bulk of John’s hundreds of personal film and video elements which were in his possession at the time of his passing in 2021. These items include original A and B rolls for his 16mm projects, videotape masters, and paper documentation related to his work, all spanning over a 40-year period from the mid-60s into the 2000s.