However, preserving them is extremely difficult.
Eyewitness News is highlighting a special community of experts at UCLA who are not only saving priceless films but are inviting you to witness some of their rarest treasures.
"There is no single place outside of the Library of Congress here in the United States that has a larger collection of moving images," said UCLA Film & Television Archive Director May Hong HaDuong.
What May has stored are some of the world's most fascinating moments in film and video. From movies to news to social commentary to history.
"We've got half a million items, enough film to wrap around the world four and a half times," May said. "Just our newsreel collection alone would basically go from here to New York and back."
She wants to give people a rare opportunity to experience some of it at the 2026 UCLA Festival of Preservation, which is set to kick off this weekend.
They'll present 11 feature films, four television programs and 30 short works, cartoons and newsreels on the big screen.
Preserving film is a monumental task. Thankfully, the group has a champion for their cause.
"David Packard recognized that he could maybe step up in support making a better home possible," May said.
Packard, son of the founder of Hewlett Packard, appreciates the importance of what the group is doing. That's why he built the storage facility for $220 million.
"We're looking at about 65 acres of land. David Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute saw the space, saw the vision to build a place for storage for cinema history," May said.
Beyond the Greek columns is a mindboggling array of chambers, wings, vaults - all specially designed to preserve and catalogue film and video. Especially delicate is film shot between the late 1800s and 1950 because the film was made of nitrate, which, over time, becomes highly unstable. If it isn't properly stored, it will suddenly combust into flames.
May has 180,000 priceless but dangerous reels, all placed in specially designed vaults kept at a chilly 38 degrees.
"What's important is each vault maintains its own fire suppression system so that if something burns in one, it doesn't move to the other," she said.
Special devices sit above the vaults under the fire suppression system - and the room goes as far as the length of a football field. That's just for the film made before 1950!
During ABC7's visit, May took time to screen rare newsreel. She showed footage of Amelia Earhart talking about repairs she was making to her plane in Burbank.
"This footage is rare," May said. "It's unique. It shows her talking about the operations of her flight, and yet 10 days later, she would leave to go around the world and never to return."
In another room, we moved to video tape and television, where she screened a portion of "& Beautiful," a first-of-its-kind program from the 60s.
"We are so lucky as a happy coincidence that we have it and were able to restore it for our screening," May said. "[The program] was made kind of off the phrase, 'Black is beautiful,'" in 1969. Black audiences watching a Black-directed show with a Black advertising initiative was groundbreaking at the time, and it's a celebration of Black life. We're really excited to show it."
You can watch the groundbreaking film and many others at this weekend's film festival. It's a rare opportunity to see beautiful, poignant works of art, and if you think you'll see them somewhere else, you're wrong.
"Everyone thinks that all moving images are on YouTube, and that all film exists and they've seen it, and they haven't," May said. "That's because a lot of it tucked away in our archives. A lot of it is ready to be discovered."
The 22nd UCLA Festival of Preservation goes from Friday, May 29 until Sunday, May 31, at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum.
Admission is free, and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to learn more.