NFSA blog entries for October 2010

One of the first films ever recorded in Australia is currently screening 12 times a day in Federation Square in the lead-up to the 150th Melbourne Cup. Crowds are gathering in Melbourne’s cultural centre to watch the rare 1896 footage of Australia’s most loved horse race.

It’s the bicentennial year of independence in Argentina – a special year for celebration – and Australia will be the guest country at the 25th Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina from 13-21 November 2010.

Artists, performers and scholars are invited to be inspired by the NFSA’s collection – to excite their curiosity and to seek inspiration. The Scholars and Artists in Residence (SAR) Fellowship was set up in 2006, not only to help SAR fellows develop their ideas, but also to share knowledge with the broader community. In return, the NFSA acquires a copy of the SAR-inspired new work and any associated research that adds new information to the NFSA collection.

I’ve been thinking about film preservation – not unusual for someone working in the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) I suppose – but my thoughts were triggered by a recent comment by NFSA’s Curator Emeritus Ray Edmondson that a particular film had 'been preserved’.

'You can’t ever say a film has 'been preserved’ he said. 'It’s an ongoing task.’