Our Audiovisual Heritage

To mark this day of days for audiovisual archives, the National Film and Sound Archive’s new CEO Michael Loebenstein spoke today about the critical issues.

‘October 27 is celebrated worldwide to raise awareness of the urgent need for preserving audiovisual works and records, and to acknowledge their importance as an integral part of national and global identities,’ he told the audience gathered at the NFSA’s Arc Cinema in Canberra.

Mr Loebenstein spoke about the new challenges that have arisen in the 21st century mediascape, and the increased expectation for universal availability of audiovisual heritage. In addition to these new developments, audiovisual archives around the world are still struggling with familiar issues, such as those first identified by Ray Edmondson in his 1994 study Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles. Some of these challenges include the obsolescence of formats and of technology; intellectual property and copyright issues; a lack of statutory authority, including the issue of Legal Deposit; the ‘digital divide’ and the uncertainties of digitisation and digital long-term storage of moving image works; and last but not least, insufficient resources to deal with the above.

Watch an excerpt from Mr Loebenstein’s speech. 

Michael Loebenstein talks about the importance of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

• Explore the items in the NFSA collection that have been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World program on australianscreen online
• Watch historical footage from our Film Australia Collection on YouTube.
• Explore how others around the world are celebrating the importance of this day through the following links: AMIA at NYU | Girona | Manila | EU | Canada | UNESCO