Robert Gitt, the person who launched the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s preservation department, has received the Silver Light Award at the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference in recognition of his outstanding career achievements and contributions to the field of moving image archiving. The Silver Light Award is the association’s highest honor.
Gitt came to UCLA in 1977 and while at the archive, he personally preserved or supervised the restoration of more than 360 feature films, as well as hundreds of shorts and newsreels. Gitt, one of the first film preservationists, built the reputation of the UCLA archive and trained the next generation of preservationists.
Gitt retired from UCLA in 2006 but contributed to special projects for several years after.