Film Studies Center

About the Center

Built around several thousand films, television shows, print elements, and audio recordings, the Center has been for five decades an operating platform for scholarship, student training, documentary production, public programming, digital access, and media-literacy education.
We consider ourselves to be....

• A globally distinctive interdisciplinary center
• Rare primary-source materials for teaching and research
• Student-centered archival and documentary training
• Public programming, exhibitions, and digital outreach
• A phased, flexible partnership model

The Censorship Collection Initiative: Preserving Five Decades of Banned Media History

The history of censorship is a story of power over information, dictating what can be created, distributed, and remembered. Built over five decades, the archives at the Forsher Film and Media Studies Center houses over 5,000 films, videos, and print elements that illuminate the intersection of media and institutional authority. These primary sources document government messaging, Hollywood standards, blacklisting, propaganda, and contemporary algorithmic moderation, offering a window into the assumptions, fears, and institutional priorities of the periods that produced them.

The Censorship Collection Initiative is a fundraising effort that establishes a vital fiscal framework to preserve these holdings for future screenings, research, and public education. Rather than treating censorship as a single issue, the project empowers users to compare historical examples and examine how restrictions manifest through government regulation, industry self-censorship, wartime information campaigns, and commercial pressures. By moving beyond simple bans, the initiative provides students, researchers, and audiences with critical tools to question who holds the power to shape public narratives.

Because physical evidence is rapidly disappearing, the Initiative approaches preservation as an intellectual and public-access responsibility rather than a mere technical exercise. Beyond digital archiving in 2K and 4K ProRes workflows, the project prioritizes rigorous metadata curation, provenance tracking, and contextual documentation to ensure that crucial historical materials remain accessible rather than effectively invisible.

The project is directed by Dr. James Forsher, a media historian, documentary filmmaker, and retired Associate Professor of Communication (1995–2016) with a Ph.D. in Urban Studies. As Director of the Center and founder of footagesource.com, Dr. Forsher bridges traditional film history with modern digital accessibility, combining decades of academic teaching, administrative leadership, and archival management to secure sustainable academic partnerships and innovative research frameworks.