Archiving the Past uncovers the story of the women in France who, from the 1920s to the 1970s, played critical roles in the production of global cinema's history: as archivists charged with collecting films and other materials, as witnesses tasked with remembering their own film careers, and as activists committed to recovering women's contributions to film history. Reflecting on how gender politics informs the production of film history, Aurore Spiers recasts the film archive as a site of women's agency, modeling strategies for inclusivity, recuperation, and liberation within feminist film historiography.