Film history is a form of cultural memory in a world where such things are, unfortunately, often greeted with ignorance, indifference, or active resistance. People who preserve and restore film history are doing heroic work in more than one sense, as they race against time, nitrate deterioration, legal access, and the mystery of where the stuff is and whether it still exists.
Source: To Save and Project 2026 Nails Cutting-Edge Film Restoration » PopMatters