The Buffalo Creek Flood :: National Film Registry

The National Film Registry
APPALSHOP PRESS RELEASE FROM 12-27-2005
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESS RELEASE
The Buffalo Creek Flood : An Act of Man was one of 25 films named to the National Film Registry in 2005. Each year since 1989, Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, has selected films for the Registry because of their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance. The list is designed to celebrate the individual films, to increase public awareness of the richness of American filmmaking, and to highlight the need for preservation. Buffalo Creek Flood was cited as a “powerful documentary” that “represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region.”
Fifty percent of the films produced before 1950 and 80 to 90 percent made before 1920 have disappeared forever. Even relatively new films are often at great risk of being lost. As Dr. Billington has said, "Sadly, our enthusiasm for watching films has proved far greater than our commitment to preserving them. And, ominously, more films are lost each year." Thankfully, Buffalo Creek Flood is now preserved, and will continue to inform the public about this tragic event for generations to come.

More information on the National Film Registry can be found at http://www.loc.gov/film/filmnfr.html

The Buffalo Creek Flood : An Act of Man Buffalo Creek Revisited