Mt. Lebanon man leads Video Trust, national group supporting academic film libraries

A lifelong love of the movies has led to a Mt. Lebanon man leading a nonprofit that helps strengthen film collections at academic libraries around the country, from kindergarten through university level.

Chad Hunter is the new executive director of Video Trust, a 40-year-old national organization that provides professional development opportunities for its members, holds an annual market to help librarians find new films for their collections and provides preservation and access resources for those libraries.

He formerly worked as senior director of The Rangos Giant Cinema at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

“I most definitely have had a lifelong love of film and cinema,” Hunter said. “This new position is a great match for my background — unusually so. I’ve worked with film and media, archiving and arts nonprofits for most of my career.”

Hunter’s past media archive work includes positions at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y.; the community arts organization Appalshop in eastern Kentucky; and WITNESS, musician Peter Gabriel’s human rights organization in New York City.

“I attended University of Michigan and worked at a great independent video store in Ann Arbor. I watched a ton of offbeat videos there, including the entire silent film section,” said Hunter, a native of Haslett, Mich. “I also watched films as part of my classes in the great movie palace, The Michigan Theatre downtown.

“I eventually became interested in the film exhibition side of things (running cinemas), so that led me to move from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh to attend the accelerated Master of Arts Management program at (Carnegie Mellon University),” he said. “My girlfriend at the time landed a great job here in Pittsburgh, and we got married and had kids — and fell in love with the city.”

Future plans

At Video Trust, he said, his priority will be guiding the organization through the transition from a 501(c)(6) to a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization.

“The 501(c)(6) status does not allow Video Trust to receive tax-deductible donations or to pursue much-needed grants,” Hunter explained. “Many libraries lack the funding or technology to adequately build and preserve their film collections. Our goal is to remove those barriers, and to empower libraries to better share the powerful stories that cinema has to tell.

“Our plans also include the establishment of a journal, as well as a public database of library film holdings to make it easier to find streaming rights and physical media,” he said.

“There are so many libraries out there that could benefit from our services, both in growing their film collections and also preservation of their film materials — and there are numerous grant opportunities that can help with that,” he added. “I also have established connections with different vendors and distributors than what the organization currently works with, so I will focus on expanding that network too.”

“During my tenure, the former National Media Market transitioned from an annual trade show to an advocacy organization for libraries and film,” said Jeff Tamblyn, outgoing executive director of Video Trust. “We serve all types of libraries as well as filmmakers and distributors. (The) announcement of Chad Hunter as our new executive director marks a big step forward for our agenda.

“His previous work shows a tremendous capability for organizational development and the imagination and drive needed to be innovative in this underserved field.”