FIAT and africa

[Greg H]

Ive gotta say that I am finding the apathy of the fanbase a bit difficult to understand on this one. Surely this is what weve all been waiting for, a good oppurtunity to finally find out what is actually in the African archives, and probably the best shot at recovering something weve had in a long time. Surely this is our chance to actually do something rather than participate in threads that say what 20 episodes would you most like to see come back?
I cant work out why a fund has not already been set up to sponsor the African archives, if everyone gave a small ammount of money to an official fund it would surely add up and get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Surely the opinions and statements of Sue Malden and Branko Bubenik are pretty cast iron indicators of the financial situation?
Fans should worry about animating episodes AFTER the African archives have been checked out thoroughly, aided with the appropriate funding. Levine located a couple of stories there back in the 80s, whos to definitively say there arent a couple more in some uncatalogued pile of film cans?
Im not trying to start a big argument about this, but why the apathy? The so called higher levels of fandom only seem to be interested in pointing out why nothing can be done, and so far as I can tell that is exactly what is being done, nothing.
I wish I was in a position to instigate a fund.

[Doug Wulf]

gh said:

Ive gotta say that I am finding the apathy of the fanbase a bit difficult to understand on this one. Surely this is what weve all been waiting for, a good oppurtunity to finally find out what is actually in the African archives, and probably the best shot at recovering something weve had in a long time. Surely this is our chance to actually do something rather than participate in threads that say what 20 episodes would you most like to see come back?
I cant work out why a fund has not already been set up to sponsor the African archives, if everyone gave a small ammount of money to an official fund it would surely add up and get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Surely the opinions and statements of Sue Malden and Branko Bubenik are pretty cast iron indicators of the financial situation?
Fans should worry about animating episodes AFTER the African archives have been checked out thoroughly, aided with the appropriate funding. Levine located a couple of stories there back in the 80s, whos to definitively say there arent a couple more in some uncatalogued pile of film cans?
Im not trying to start a big argument about this, but why the apathy? The so called higher levels of fandom only seem to be interested in pointing out why nothing can be done, and so far as I can tell that is exactly what is being done, nothing.
I wish I was in a position to instigate a fund.

There is probably not apathy on this situation and perhaps funding has been found in the last two months and perhaps something is indeed being done.

It is only that a funding problem at ZNBC has existed since basically forever and was recognized and described by FIAT in April 2003, but still existed as recently as two months ago. It would therefore be great to hear some news that some way forward has been found. If not, I would hope that there would come an appeal from those who know what is going on to set up a fund via FIAT or perhaps via some other organization, such as the British Council in Zambia.

There is certainly no guarantee that any missing episodes still exist in archives in Zambia, Uganda, or other African nations. However, given that large archives of 16mm prints in these places have apparently not been investigated for decades, there is at least a distinct possibility. This really should be checked, and I hope that finding a source of relatively modest funding won't continue to be an impediment, as it has been for so many years.

There is also some level of urgency associated with this, given that the films are not properly stored and suffer from vinegar syndrome due to the heat and humidity. There have already been long delays, so the matter would ideally be addressed sooner, rather than later.

[Daniel E]

Doug.....a lot of people are saying there should be a fund and they would donate.... You seen to be in touch with the lady in FIAT who this was discussed with......can you get in touch and see if it can actually be set up ?

[Greg H]

I think doug is the obvious candidate if this still needs doing. I would be happy to give as much as my time as I can to helping out. Hopefully all of this is academic and something is being done, for some reason, on the sly :/
Well, shout if anyone wants to contact Sue or start something happening.
Open.

[Doug Wulf]

gh said:

I think doug is the obvious candidate if this still needs doing. I would be happy to give as much as my time as I can to helping out. Hopefully all of this is academic and something is being done, for some reason, on the sly :/
Well, shout if anyone wants to contact Sue or start something happening.
Open.

I don't happen to have contact info myself, but I've emailed someone who does and suggested that this message be passed along. That is, if there were such a fund, there would be people who would like to contribute to it.

[Daniel E]

Any updates on a response ?

[Doug Wulf]

ernie90125 said:

Any updates on a response ?

I've just been swamped with work. I'll look into it again as soon as I am able.

[scribulus]

Apathy from fandom's not the problem. It's the apathy of the archival authorities over here for the past twenty odd years that's been the issue. Having looked at the attached 2003 report posted earlier, it's clear the presence of vinegar syndrome only confirms the Zambia material is well and truly f***ed.

Of course, I'm also hoping SOMETHING can be salvaged, but if it's as infectious a phenomenon
as the experts claim, there is little hope of even single episodes surviving, never mind complete stories. 2Entertain are heading for disappointment here, I feel.

[Greg H]

well, we'll be alright then. Give the powers that be another 20 years or so and they *might* have a look and see if anythings left.
Everyone seems to prefer to ask about the top 20 missing episodes instead of doing anything.