Audiovisual Collections Management

Presentation

First, this curricular unit aims to strengthen the specific knowledge of students about the past and present of film archive management; secondly, to foster the critical ability to interpret and intervene in the context of contemporary preservation practices.

Part of this Programme

Film Heritage

Level of Qualification|Semesters|ECTS

| Semestral | 6

Year | Type of course unit | Language

1 |Mandatory |Português

Code

ULHT6353-23333

Recommended complementary curricular units

N/A

Prerequisites and co-requisites

n/a

Professional Internship

Não

Syllabus

The syllabus of this curricular unit is divided into a historical perspective on the origins of audiovisual archives based on the Portuguese politics of heritage preservation and a critical analysis of contemporary preservation practices.

The historical component concerns the emergence of restoration initiatives of filmic artefacts in European film culture during the first half of the 20th century, as well as providing a look into the most remarkable archives of the United States of America.

The analytic component considers the different dynamics involved in the management of audiovisual archives today, including:
- the role of Jose¿ de Figueiredo's laboratory in Portugal
- conditions and criteria of archive funding;

- preservation and exhibition policies;
- legal deposit;
- challenges presented by digitalisation and dematerialisation processes; - the role of the Internet and alternative archival systems.

Objectives

This curricular unit aims to achieve two learning macro-objectives.
First, the students will acquire a better understanding of the origins of audiovisual archives and the preservation practices of filmic artefacts. This historical knowledge will be complemented by the ability to critically interpret the sociocultural values involved in the specific configurations assumed by audiovisual archives over time.
Second, students will acquire skills to better interpret the complex political, economic, and cultural problematics affecting the management of audiovisual archives. In addition, these skills will entail the capability of formulating informed, critical, and creative proposals to address contradictions in contemporary archival contexts.

Teaching methodologies and assessment

The teaching methodology includes theoretical classes in an open dialogue with the students. In each class, the students will face a different major topic and will be asked to exercise their critical judgement, sharing any previous knowledge and personal experiences relevant for the group discussions.

In the first part of the class, the professors will present concepts relating to each topic, after which they will act as mediators and encourage the debate. For that purpose, the students will have access to reference texts for a more effective and informed participation.
Theoretical classes, occasionally and according to organisational possibilities, will alternate with field trips (for example, to the Arquivo Nacional da Imagem em Movimento [National Archive of Moving Images]) and discussions with other professionals and researchers.

References

Revista de Museus #2 (2019). Lisboa: Direc¿a¿o Geral do Patrimo¿nio Cultural.

Rediscovering the Role of Film Archives: to Preserve and to Show. Proceedings of the FIAF Symposium held in Lisboa in 1989, (1990). Lisboa: Cinemateca Portuguesa.

FOSSATI, Giovanna & VAN DEN OEVER, Annie (2016), Exposing the film apparatus: the film archive as a research laboratory, Amsterda¿o: Amsterdam University Press.

FRANCIS, David, CHERCHI USAI, Paolo, HORWATH, Alexander & LOEBENSTEIN, Michael (2020), Film curatorship - Archives, museums, and the digital marketplace, Viena: Synema Gesellschaft fur Film u. Medien.

FRICK, Caroline (2011), Saving cinema: the politics of preservation, Oxford: Oxford University Press. LE ROY, E¿ric (2013), Cine¿mathe¿ques et archives du film, Paris: Armand Colin.

RASCAROLI, Laura, YOUNG, Gwenda & MONAHAN, Barry (2014), Amateur filmmaking: the home movie, the archive, the web, Londres: Bloomsbury Publishing.

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