Film Archives, Inc. or F.I.L.M. Archives (Fast Images Lotsa Movies) is a stock footage company based in New York City.
It is believed to be one of the oldest independent footage companies and has supplied footage to feature films, television, industrial, commercial, and web footage users.
Footage from its library of mostly vintage films has been featured in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the feature films 42, Argo, Dreamgirls and Trial of the Chicago 7.
Film Archives was founded in 1986 by Mark Trost and Rick Scheckman, who had been collecting 16mm films as a hobby throughout the 1960s and 1970s, an era before the advent of home VCRs. When Trost was contacted by the producers of the ABC News series Our World with Linda Ellerbee for use of a clip from the 1938 Lone Ranger serial, the company notified other TV producers of their collection. Producers of Geraldo, Inside Edition and the Comedy Channel (precursor to Comedy Central) soon began incorporating clips from the company's collection into their programs.[1]
In 1987, Film Archives began representing footage from Cablevision's local all-news channel News 12 Long Island.[2] Stories that originally ran on the channel were soon licensed for use by Dateline NBC, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Extra.
Company's major claim to television fame is being the source of David Letterman's favorite clip, Monkey Washes the Cat, which has since been replaced by a sneezing monkey (not provided by FILM Archives). The clip was featured as the "Moment of Zen" accompanying Jon Stewart's February 10 announcement that he would be retiring from The Daily Show. In addition, they licensed the rare short Mr. B Natural for use in Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).[3] F.I.L.M. Archives is the only known holder of this film print today, archived as reel #1133B.
According to company records, the top five footage requests are: 1. Elvis Presley 2. Marilyn Monroe 3. John F. Kennedy 4. 1950s suburbia 5. World War II[4]
Television series:
Films:
