HSFA preserves and provides access to ethnographic films and anthropological moving image materials.
The NAFC was founded through the advocacy of notable anthropologists and filmmakers Margaret Mead, John Marshall, Timothy Asch,Alan Lomax and Jay Ruby.
[1] The first director of the NAFC, E. Richard Sorenson, promoted anthropological film as a scientific research tool.
[3] In 1981, the NAFC was renamed the Human Studies Film Archives and became part of the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History.
HSFA collections comprise more than 8 million feet of film and almost one thousand hours of video recordings.