This Film Is Dangerous is an anthology published by the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) to examine and to celebrate the life, the death, the afterlife, and the mythology of nitrate film. It incorporates the papers given at the symposium The Last Nitrate Picture Show during the FIAF Congress in London in June 2000, as well as a wealth of original contributions by historians, archivists, veterans, and enthusiasts around the world.
Roger Smither worked at Imperial War Museums for 40 years, retiring as Keeper of the Film and Photograph Archives in August 2010. He was the Secretary-General of FIAF.
Catherine A. Surowiec is an independent film historian, researcher, and copyeditor.
Publisher: FIAF, with financial assistance from the Eric Anker-Petersen Charity.
"[A]n extraordinary anthology which includes everything from poetry to graphs, film-can labels to stars wrapped in celluloid, as well as some extremely informative papers. It is, emphatically, not a book for the tidy-minded or the reader in a hurry to get to the point. But for anyone who feels drawn to the material as well as to the mythology of film, it's fascinating."
~British Film Institute
"This book could well be dangerous—serves its purpose as a homage to the nitrate film."
~Stephen Bury, Head of the European and American Collections, The British Library (London)
