Kerry Sue Underwood received the Alan Stark Award at the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA www.amianet.org) annual meeting‪‬ in Portland, Oregon in late November. Underwood, who is based in the Los Angeles area, has worked as an exclusive contract sales agent for Underground Vaults & Storage, Inc. (UV&S) for over 20 years. The award was in recognition for her contribution to and leadership in film preservation.

In mid-2015, Underwood, in partnership with UV&S, organized a team of volunteers from the film industry to save nearly 150 pallets of film and sound elements from scheduled destruction after the warehouse they were located in fell into bankruptcy. The 6 truckloads of material are now safely stored at UV&S’s salt mine facility in Hutchinson, Kansas, where they will undergo an extensive inventory over the next year to catalogue and return the elements to their rightful owners. Nominated by her peers, Underwood was recognized at the annual meeting during a ceremony that recognized leaders in the industry during the general session.

The Alan Stark Award honors individuals who have made a significant contribution through their efforts on a special project or in project management that contributes to, and supports, the work of moving image archives and/or the operations of AMIA. Named for the late Alan Stark, a founding AMIA member, the award honor’s his commitment to the preservation of moving image archives and his belief that the work done to preserve our audiovisual heritage is strengthened by the diversity of experts working in the field.
Underground Vaults & Storage is one of the largest film storage and preservation providers, caring for millions of elements for the motion picture and television industry.