« SAVE YOUR ARCHIVE », a FIAT/IFTA program

Dominique Saintville (Ina)Mette Charis Buchman (DR)Théo Maüsli (RSI)

FIAT/IFTASave your Archive

UNESCOWorld Day for AV Heritage

Sharing the same vision

• Raise awareness about the value and the vulnerability of the audio visual heritage

• Save the world audio visual heritage• Take action!

« Start saving a few endangered archives »

Do not wait, take action!« Start saving endangered archives »

• It reflects our vision of FIAT/IFTA as a networked, united, professional community

Save your Archive

• A FIAT/IFTA program – Announced last year at the WC in London– Intended to support a few well defined projects focused on

preservation, digitization, valorization of archival content– By various means : professional advice, equipment,

training, funding

• All details are available at http://fiatifta.org/save-your-archive/– Guidelines– Application Template

« Save your Archive » The outcome of FIAT/IFTA previous initiatives

• Madagascar / FL@H, 2011/2012• a successfull experience of saving an endangered archive• Involving FIAT/IFTA and its members

• FL@H:• An independant archive preserving and digitizing the film and

video heritage of Madagascar• Thanks to the French cooperation

The FL@H story

• FL@H was running out of money to pay the wages and the electricity

• FL@H President alerted the FIAT/IFTA EC in 2011• At the Torino Conference, a partnership was set ut –

FIAT/IFTA, OIF, Ina, ORTN and Memnon - to gather the necesary resources to relaunch the activity and secure a sustainable development

• At the London confrence the progress made were reported

• And more progresses have been made since …

Save your Archive Resources

• A special fund is established from the FIAT/IFTA regular budget– thanks to an efficient management of FIAT/IFTA income– 2013 budget

• A dedicated team of FIAT/IFTA volunteers:– Mette Charis Buchman (DR), Théo Maeusli (RTS), Roberto

Rossetto (RAI), Brid Dooley (RTE), Dominique Saintville (Ina) – And the Ina advisers: Jean Varra, Camille Martin, Jean Gabriel

Minel

Agenda

2012 • September 30th: Program is announced2013 • May 1st: Call for projects is issued• September 1st: Twelve applications received• September & October: Projects assessed & selected• October 27th: Four selected projects announced• November: Agreements signed. A FIAT/IFTA volunteer

appointed2014• September/October: Report back at the next FIAT/IFTA WC

Selection criteria

The collection at risk

– Vulnerability– Value, significance– Copyright– Accessibility

The project– Specificity– Feasibility– Cost & budget– Impact– Organization support– Partners & Sponsors– Replicability– Diversity

Selected projects

• Madagascar / Fl@h / Valorization of archive content

• Romania / TVR / Preservation & Digitization of a historical collection – the 1989 Revolution

• South Africa /National Archives / Digitization of the Sound Recordings of the Nelson Mandela’s trial

• Zimbabwe / National Archives / Preparation of the film archive digitization plan

« Save your Archive » in 2014?

• Same agenda as in 2013• Budget allocation has been decided

Madagascar

Valorizing the unique FL@H Archive

THE LIVE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION

An endangered collection at the Romanian Television Archive

ROMANIA, DECEMBER 1989

” The Romanian Revolution was a series of riots and protests in Romania in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries. The Romanian Revolution resulted in the violent overthrow and execution of longtime Romanian Communist Party leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, and the end of 42 years of Communist rule in Romania”

WiKIPEDIA

THE LIVE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION

• Key moments from the fall of the communist era in Romania (december 1989)

• A collection in The Romanian Television Archive • 400 h of footage (100 h broadcasted live) –

advanced state of degradation• Restore, preserve, digitalize and make

accessible• under the leadership of Georgiana-Irina Negrara

Lazar, Head of Archive

WHY GRANTED HELP?

• An important collection• An endangered collection• A collection that will/can be made accessible• A collection with an impact on the world• The project/application is smart– Specific– Measurable– Ambitious– Realistic– Timely

South Africa NARSSA/NFVSA – National Archives

The “Rivonia trial” sound recordings

NFVSA

National Film, Video and Sound Archive of South Africa

The Dictabelt Collection

• NFVSA holds a collection of 8.000 dictabelts • Dictabelts were used to record proceedings during Court

cases, between 50’s to early 70’s• The most well known case is the Rivonia trial

Rivonia trial

The Rivonia trial• Rivonia, a suburb of

Johannesburg where ANC (African National Congress) leaders were arrested

• Nelson Mandela and the ANC leaders charged with acts of sabotage

• The trial took place in Pretoria (Nov. 1963 - June 1964)

• A turning point in the struggle against the apartheid

The Rivonia archive material• Court audio recordings• 550 dictabelts x 30 min• Rare playback dictaphones• Only 7 dictabelts have been

digitized (British Library, 2001)• Nelson Mandela final address

An invaluable collection

• It is part of South Africa collective memory • It is listed in the UNESCO’s Memory of the World

Register• The project is part of the Commemoration of the

Rivonia Trial• So far the collection is not accessible

The archive material : dictabelts, dictaphones

Dictabelts, descriptions, folders

The NFVSA project

• General goal– digitize and give access to the Rivonia records– preserve this material for posterity– In the longer term: save the complete dictabelt collection

• Specific request to FIAT/IFTA for 2013/2014– Start the digitization of the Rivonia records by supporting the

digitization of a first sub collection of one hundred dictabelts

• Approached partners – Ina

Building an international partnership to save the Rivonia records

Process• Digitization & restauration tests

– INA & French service provider

• Preparation of the documents by NFVSA

• Digital preservation in France • Restauration• Documentation• Valorization

Playback machine used for tests: “Archeophone”

Nelson Mandela’s final address on 20th April 1964

• “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrdWWj6dro