EVOLVING A NATIONAL FOCUS POINT FOR AV ARCHIVING
by Belina SB. Capul
Secretary-General, SEAPAVAA/
Staff Director for Film, Philippine Information Agency
Introduction
My session for this morning deals with the need to establish a national focus point for AV archiving. This focus point could refer to an organization where all national activities on AV archiving are centralized, or to a coordinating body or mechanism that can serve as a clearing house for national activities on AV archiving in cases where there is more than one organization undertaking the responsibility for the country. The Philippine model will be cited as a case in point to show how work could be carried out more easily and effectively by establishing a focus point for all our activities.
I think you would all agree with me that the ideal situation with regards to AV archiving in our respective countries is to see that ultimately a central body, officially recognized by government and fully supported by the publics it serves, is in place to ensure that the preservation of our national AV heritage and of making this permanently accessible for future generations. For countries which may already have this central body but exists only as such in name, the concern is how to make it operate the way it ought to and be responsive to the needs of the AV archiving profession over time.
These are visions we share with our colleagues in the region and the reasons for our coming together is to find solutions to issues that could not be adequately addressed on the national level for one reason or the other.
As we move towards the shared vision of having a fully functional national AV archiving body operating in our countries, each country will, however, follow a part according to its need at a given time, and employ techniques, strategies and approaches that may be different from the others.
The Philippine Situation
The Philippines is one country that employed a unique strategy in carrying out the work in AV archiving. In the absence of an operational AV archives in the country, most of the activities of institutions with AV archive holdings such as the Philippine Information Agency, the UP Film Center, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Mowelfund, etc., are informally being coordinated by a professional body composed of "archivists" working in the different institutions involved in archiving.
It should be noted though that during the early 1980’s, the Philippines had a national film archive that was fully operational in the real sense of the word. After the 1986 Edsa Revolution, the archive received the least priority and was transferred to the Censors Body. No archiving activity was carried out by this unit since then. The various tasks involved in AV archiving rested on the shoulders of related agencies, not by their own chose but by necessity required of their work. AV archiving activities were separately being undertaken. The turning point came when the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which wanted to organize a Lino Brocka Retrospective, discovered that many of the Brocka films, particularly those that were significant, were already destroyed. Some of the surviving prints were brought to the Philippine Information Agency for restoration. With no previous experience on cases of this nature, PIA had to turn to other agencies for materials that could be used as reference for the work. The UP Film Center, with its contacts with international organizations and as a recipient of several fellowship awards from UNESCO, provided PIA a copy of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Manual. This was the first inter-institutional contact in the country that proved to be significant as it eventually led to a formal partnership among the archivists from these institutions in what was to become later as the Society of Film Archivists (SOFIA).
The Society of Film Archivists (SOFIA) was formally organized in July, 1993 out of need and in compliance with the recommendation of the ASEAN Planning Workshop Meeting on Film Retrieval, Restoration and Archiving, which the Philippines organized in February, 1996. SOFIA’s membership is made up of individual AV archivists working in cultural organizations, information agencies, broadcasting and academic institutions, film production companies, and film critics.
Since then, the members have been meeting regularly to exchange information on various concerns which include questions pertaining to the standard way of carrying out the AV archiving work, the number and title of films that have survived and their whereabouts, the important films that will have to be located, what to do with films that were being thrown out, who should do what and where to get resources, what needs to be instituted to get the work done to address long term preservation concerns, who should be approached to do the work, etc.
Several projects were formulated and implemented by SOFIA or separately by the members’ institutions using the sponsors’ or the member agencies’ funds. The activities undertaken include training programs on archive management cataloguing and restoration; survey of AV materials and their storage, standardization of catalogues, finding homes for unwanted films, restoration projects, formulation of policies and procedures, drawing the national storage design and specifications, etc. International linkages were forged particularly with Australia’s NFSA and AusHeritage, Germany’s Bundesarchiv, and counterparts in the ASEAN with whom joint projects were undertaken.
The role of SOFIA in the development of the AV archiving profession in the country is one that has been evolving over time. At the beginning, SOFIA served as a venue for exchanging knowledge and skills. As such, the kinds of projects undertaken during this stage were mostly training programs. Later, SOFIA became an informal coordinating body for activities undertaken by the different institutions involved in archiving. These projects were implemented by institutions as part of their in-house programs and according to what these institutions can do best. This enabled the different institutions to avoid duplication of efforts and therefore saved on scarce national resources. Presently, SOFIA’s role has evolved into that of a mobilizer and an advocate for the setting up of a central body that would formally be recognized by the government and supported by the public sector.
It will be noted that, in the course of time, SOFIA realized that a formal body should be set up to address long term preservation issues. To do this, SOFIA identified the work that needs to be done and the persons who could do something to effect the change. A series of meetings were held with government officials, cultural organizations and industry leaders. SOFIA was able to get the official endorsement of the SOFIA position among the officials of government and industry leaders. At present, the national storage site has been identified and the technical design and specifications were drawn with the help of our international colleagues from NFSA and Bundesarchiv. These tasks have already been undertaken on the official level.
The effectiveness of this model in the Philippines could be better appreciated in the context of the prevailing situation operating at the time SOFIA was born and the commitment of the members to pursue the work. Prevailing conditions that were considered important that helped bring about the results were the following:
SOFIA has been serving as a temporary focus point for AV archiving in the Philippines while the functional National Archive is still in the process of being established.
It is hoped that the Philippine experience could serve as a model for cooperation on the national level. I would encourage others including countries with national archives in place to have a professional group in the country that would assist the archives. The professional group could serve as a watchdog to ensure that the archives remain responsive to the need of AV archiving.