REELIN’ IN THE YEARS PRODUCTIONS NAMED FOCAL’S FOOTAGE LIBRARY OF THE YEAR historical music documentaries and programs focused primarily on the giants of jazz, blues and rock and roll.

HOLLYWOOD (Perfect Music  Today—10/30/20/–FOCAL International (The Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries International), the trade association that helps its members facilitate the use of library footage, images, stills and audio in all forms of media production, has awarded the 2020 Footage Library of the Year Award to Reelin’ In The Years Productions.  RITY, founded and headed by David Peck is the world’s premier source for footage of musical artists, entertainers and history makers.

David Peck commented, “We are so honored that we have won FOCAL’s 2020 Footage Library Of The Year award. Reelin’ In The Years Productions has been in this business for nearly three decades, and while we have won numerous awards for various projects, this one is very special because it speaks to the work we’ve done (and continue to do) to preserve this filmed history and make it available to an ever-growing community of filmmakers.”

He added, “We feel very strongly how important footage is and why it needs to be preserved so that filmmakers today and in the future can accurately tell the story of the subject on which they are focused. Whether its archival footage of musicians, sports heroes, politicians, authors, or something as powerful as the cell phone video that captured of the death of George Floyd and all the subsequent protests in the streets across America, the filming and preservation of footage is one of the most important things we can do to accurately reflect and  preserve our collective history. There is great archive still sitting on obsolete formats that needs to be transferred before it’s too late, so the hope is that those that have archives on old formats please invest and preserve that material, so we don’t lose these precious moments of history.”

Over the course of the past 30 years, Reelin’ in the Years Productions has been passionately involved in finding, preserving and cataloging unique and historically significant archival footage, emerging as a truly world-class footage company built from the ground up. Its focus has, from the start, been the fundamentals: dedication to the archival craft; a keen nose for relevant, in-demand content; a deep knowledge of their collections; and stellar customer service.

In recent times RITY’s reached new heights  with an archive that now includes over 30,000 hours of music footage and 10,000 hours of in-depth interviews with the 20th century’s most recognizable personalities.Just within the past few years, RITY has added four new collections to its portfolio, all of which were either lost or scattered across many locations. These include The David Frost Show; Brian Linehan’s City Lights; Countdown, Europe’s legendary music show; and the footage archive of the seminal rock band the Doors. Prior to RITY ‘s taking them on, all four collections were for all intents and purposes unmarketable, either because they were completely uncatalogued or stored on outdated formats. All four now fully cataloged, preserved and available for licensing. In 2017, RITY began exclusively representing ITV’s vast musical holdings, which were formerly handled by ITN, adding many thousands of performances and interviews with the world’s most influential artists to that footage inventory. Over the last two years, RITY has worked closely with ITV and co-financed a project to transfer and catalogue their unique music footage holdings, which yielded many new discoveries this past year.

Reelin’ in the Years has also directed and produced over 70 historical music documentaries and programs focused primarily on the giants of jazz, blues and rock and roll. This past August they took their production work to the next level, entering a non-exclusive production partnership with Nigel Sinclair of White Horse Pictures, whose production credits include The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years (directed by Ron Howard); Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World; No Direction Home: Bob Dylan; and Foo Fighters: Back and Forth.

In connection with RITY’s nomination for the FOCAL award, Jampol Artist Management’s Jeff Jampol who handles the Doors supplied a testimonial that read, in part, “The Doors chose David Peck and Reelin’ in the Years to represent The Doors archive for two reasons. First, they have a stellar reputation in the footage licensing business, especially in the area of music and entertainment footage. Second, they seemed up to the challenge of sorting out our archival collection and getting it ready for market. They did not disappoint us in either area, somewhat miraculously, if the truth be told.”

Nigel Sinclair Of White Horse Pictures submitted a statement to FOCAL including this commentary: “Of course, David runs this amazing library, but he also brings to the table the passion and commitment of a true archivist who cares deeply about the historical importance of footage and the need to preserve it. His invaluable advice to us on projects has gone way beyond just curating the footage he represents, and this new partnership is a chance for us to utilize his extraordinary knowledge to create some very high-level, archive-driven projects on subjects we all love.”

Upon learning of the award’s bestowal on RITY, David Peck remarked, “I’m so honored to win with this award and to be part of this industry with so many amazing archives across the globe.”

Since 1992, Reelin’ In The Years Productions has been recognized as a world leader in footage licensing. Our unique archive houses over 30,000 hours of music footage spanning  90 years. Recently we’’ve begun to offer for licensing hundreds of thousands of music-related photos from the 1930s to today. With our extensive knowledge of music history, an unparalleled archive of music performance footage spanning ten decades and an ever-expanding photo archive, we are your one-stop shop for both moving and still images of music artists. In addition to our massive music footage & photo archive, we also have available for licensing 7,000 hours of in-depth interviews with the 20th century’s icons of Film and Television, Politics, Comedy, Literature, Art, Science, Fashion, and Sports, filmed between 1962-2012. The interviews are from legendary talk shows around the world, including those hosted by Sir David Frost, Merv Griffin, Rona Barrett and Brian Linehan.