Audiovisual Archives in Latin America

FIAT/IFTA Latin American Seminar, May 27-28, 1998

According to a decision made by FIAT/IFTA at the 1996 General Assembly - Extraordinary Session in Paris, the Association's objectives and purposes are: "...encourage members to organise local and regional meetings to benefit members within a certain geographical area...". With reference to these latest changes to the statutes of FIAT/IFTA the Executive Council approved the initiative to hold a seminar in Latin America for members and to make contacts with audiovisual archives situated in the region. The host of the seminar was Television Nacional de Chile (TNC).

Jonathan Banks, RTI/Lipsner-Smith (left) and Jim Lindner, Vidipax

An invitation to the seminar was forwarded to archives situated in the geographical area called Latin/South America. We made attempts to use this opportunity to inform television stations, private archives and institutions whose aim is to preserve and reuse film and television programmes or audiovisual material about the work of FIAT/IFTA.

The seminar was an experiment in approaching new countries, contacting archives unknown to FIAT/IFTA and to support members who have missed a formal support from the Association. The aim of the seminar was to highlight issues of interest to our members in Latin America. The sessions focused on topics like: Preservation of old tapes and film, archives sales and selection policy, storage issues and guidelines for reuse of archive material, strategies for future planning of film and videotape archives and of television archives, policies for access to the collections and policies for the active reuse of transmitted programmes.

The keynote speech was given by Professor Jan Olsson, Stockholm University, Department of Cinema Studies. The title of his speech was Academic Access to Television Archives World-wide - Cultural Heritage and the People's Access to the Collections of Audiovisual Archives - An Outline for Funding. Delegates from archives in Latin America reported to the seminar about the main issues of interest and about the present situation in their own archives. Members of FIAT Programming & Production Commission gave an important contribution to the seminar by lecturing about FIAT's policy on different matters. Among the most active in this field it is important to mention Sue Malden, BBC, and the Chairman of the commission, Lasse Nilsson, SVT, who both did an excellent job.

Sue Malden focused on issues like selection policy, guidelines for use of archive material already transmitted and sales policy. Lasse Nilsson highlighted the importance of reusing old and forgotten television programmes by lecturing about the experience of Swedish Television new policy in this field. The representative of FIAT/IFTA°s Documentation Commission, Nisicler Figueira from TV Globo, Brazil, highlighted issues about future planning of archives and informed of the latest news in the field of documentation. Strategies for the future - how to combine the past with the future in the field of access to old tapes and to make documentation of the programmes - was left to be lectured by Tedd Johansen.

The seminar had invited Jim Lindner, VidiPax, USA, to lecture about the approach to old materials and to put up a policy for preserving tapes in general. It was an excellent lecture because Jim Lindner manages to talk to you about technical matters without using complicated technical expressions (he will repeat the lecture in Florence in September in a workshop about tapes). Equipment to be used for film and video preservation were presented by the expert in the field: Jonathan Banks, RTI - Lipsner-Smith, USA. Film preservation was also highlighted by Daniel Sandoval, Director of Fundacion Chilena de Las Imagenes en Movimiento, Santiago de Chile, and a new member from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Roberto di Chiara, Director of Archivo de Cine, Radio y Television.

Exterior of the Canal 13 premises

The participants at the two day seminar in Santiago de Chile came from these countries: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The host of the seminar, Television Nacional de Chile (TVNC), did an excellent job. FIAT/IFTA's members in TNC, Marcos Salazar Beltran, Amira Arratia Fernandez and Paulina Montaldo Ortiz, organised the seminar in an effective way and they showed that it is possible to host local seminars/conferences without a complicated and huge administration. Gracias miembros de la FIAT/IFTA. Gracias TNC.

Tedd Johansen
President

Excursion to the vineyard Concha y Toros Estate

At the vineyard: Lasse Nilsson, Concha y Toro guide, Paulina Montaldo Ortiz, TVN, Seminar organizer, Tedd Johansen.
Photo: TVN