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The first ever FIAT Eastern European Conference was hosted by Gosteleradiofond in Moscow. This was a most significant occasion. For the first time, the many film and television archives in the former Soviet Union, had the opportunity to join together and learn about one another's archives, and also to compare mutual problems and issues of archive management.
Until this occasion, each of the archives had operated quite separately from the others making little or no contact with one another.
It was also the first time that FIAT took its body of experience and knowledge in archive management to our colleagues in Eastern Europe.
Over 42 different countries were represented at the conference. There were guest speakers from Zambia, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and the UK as well as many Russian experts.
Sue Malden had been invited to speak at the conference on "the Implementation and Application of Selection Policy for Television programming," and "the BBC Digital Archive and Preservation Strategy"..
Branko Bubenik, Peter Dusek etc. at Red Square, Moscow
The conference included the opportunity to visit the Russian State Archive of Film, Photography and Cinema. The collection of over 38,000 titles, 1 million photographs is managed by 180 staff. Recently, the intake to the archive has dropped from over 1,000 a year in the 1980s to about 100 or so currently. The earliest material dates from 1896 with film of the coronation of the Tsar. The store of this film archive is immaculate - very precise conditions for the storage of nitrate and close monitoring of temperature and micro-sampling of the air in the stores.
Most interesting of all was to see the demonstration of the catalogue of the film archive on the internet. Funding for this work has been provided by the Sorros Foundation, UNESCO and some State funding. The catalogue is available at www.abarmedia.com. This provides a link to the main archive site at rgakfd.internews.ru/catalogue.htm. The total grant for the work was $112,000., which has been used to fund a minimum level of data input .Following which. there will be a need to do a more in depth cataloguing for many of the items referred to in the catalogue. Also, currently the catalogue is in Russian - the plan is to embark on an English translation of the catalogue information as soon as possible.
The second visit for the conference was the following day to Gosteleradiofond This archive is based at the old movie studios outside Moscow. The collection is that relating to the former state broadcaster of radio and television. The radio material dates back to 1938 with 400,000 items, mainly of music and drama. The preservation programme for this collection involves transferring the original _ inch tapes to CD. In the television collections there is video tape - about 22,000 2 inch tapes, but only 4,00 1 inch tapes. This is because the majority of the 1 inch tape holdings have already been transferred to Beta SP. The film holdings total over 200,000 cans for about 10,000 documentary and feature movie titles. There are a further 24,000 titles - black and white and colour cartoons.
The storage conditions for these films and video tape were quite incredible. Not only strict temperature control, humidity control and, but also special lights to dispose of any micro-organisms that might be in the air of the storage areas. In addition, the air from every store was checked regularly - every 3 months and the contents, i.e. the film and video tape, checked every 2 years for any form of contamination or damage. They even had a separate chemistry department to check the quality of the air and for any micro attack on the film or video tape. Everyone wore white jackets, white gloves.
On the last day of the conference there was an award ceremony. Every person who had attended the conference was presented with a diploma of attendance and a video of the workings of Gosteleradiofond. Each person came to the podium to receive there award from Anatoly Vistorobets, the Head of the Archive .The audience warmly applauded each recipient. Sue Malden made a speech congratulating everyone on behalf of FIAT.
In general, this was an amazing experience to visit archives that we all have heard about, but not had the opportunity to visit. To see how they are embracing the opportunities to become much more open and to widen access to their tremendously valuable collections.
The lectures at the conference itself were most interesting and highly valued by the participants.
Personally, it was a great experience visiting the Red Square, the Kremlin for the first time and also, being able to travel on the world famous Moscow Metro.
Sue Malden
Sue Malden
FIAT/IFTA Programme and Production Commmission
sue.malden@bbc.co.uk
| EDITORS: Steve Bryant - BFI, Dominique Saintville - INA, Sue Malden |
Last update : 01/03/06
© 2006 - FIAT/IFTA