Threat to NFTVA? (Guardian S2)

[Andy Henderson]

Website warns of threat to film archive

Staff at the British Film Institute are concerned about the ongoing review of the organisation, begun after the appointments of chair Anthony Minghella and director Amanda Nevill last year. The review's first high-profile victim was a planned film centre next to Tate Modern. A second was the Museum of the Moving Image, still mothballed after being closed, supposedly temporarily, in 1999. Now there is talk of a threat to the National Film & TV Archive, in Berkhamsted.
The website of an organisation calling itself Curatori Lucis Group (filmarchiveaction.org) alleges that the BFI plans to sell the archive's HQ, change its acquisition policy and make 40 specialist staff redundant. This, it says, is part of a drive to shave a third off the annual budget.
Curatori Lucis are anonymous, though the website has a list of supporters, including industry luminaries such as film director Mike Hodges. The BFI says Cuatori Lucis is a group of disgruntled ex-employees who can't bear change. Roy Payne of the BFI says: 'We can't dismiss their allegations firmly enough. The archive might well go through some changes as a result of the review, and there will be some redundancies across the BFI, to free fixed costs ... But the review is all about enhancing what the BFI does. We're actually increasing funding into the archive.' Andrew Pulver

[Andrew Doherty]

Even the slightest hint of the work of the NFTVA being brought into the realm of speculation must be of concern to everyone who cares about the Television Archive as well as the Film Archive. This is the only Organization (outside of the Film and Television Organizations) that can deal with the long-term preservation of television history.

Much work has gone into the recovery of Television's past with, I believe, great success. That so much programming has been uncovered in the past twenty-five years (yes, twenty five years) is hardly anything short of the miraculous.

I have been involved in trying to recover missing programmes, with varying degrees success, since October 1987, well before the excellent Missing Believed Wiped Initiative.

So, for all those who care about the recovery, preservation and use of our Television Heritage, it will be necessary to keep a close eye on the situation.

[Andy Henderson]

Thank-you, Andrew for your well thought out reply. I know you're possibly too modest to mention that you have been responsible for some very significant recoveries, which may be unknown to many of the peole who visit this forum. The exceptionally rare recording of a live Ideal Home Exhibition (1961) Ad-mag with Jimmy Hanley was one such treasure. I hope you continue to find such gems. I remember you wrote to the BBC in the 1960s (1968?) to ask about the fate of older programmes. You are a pioneer in this field!

[regmole]

Andy - off topic, but can you confirm you posted a message as Emitron about F Gymplaine MacIntyre on the Mausoleum board? I'm the paranoid who wondered if he was spoofing you!

[Andrew Doherty]

Guest-Andy said:

Thank-you, Andrew for your well thought out reply. I know you're possibly too modest to mention that you have been responsible for some very significant recoveries, which may be unknown to many of the peole who visit this forum. The exceptionally rare recording of a live Ideal Home Exhibition (1961) Ad-mag with Jimmy Hanley was one such treasure. I hope you continue to find such gems. I remember you wrote to the BBC in the 1960s (1968?) to ask about the fate of older programmes. You are a pioneer in this field!

I refer you to a reply given for the topic marked " The White Rabbit" which first started my interest in archiving.

Yours sincerely,

[Brian Fretwell]

A fuller version (I believe) of the concerns of this group was circulated at the May British Film Collectors convention. The main worry that I see is the proposal to stop copying old films to new stock (the john Paul Getty centre) on the argument that better storage will prevent deterioration. As the group say film is so unpredictable (some nitrate perfect, even now and acetate and the later tri-acetate in some cases almost unrecoverable) this seems very short sighted.