Fire destroys celluloid film history
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Dear colleagues. Please pass this along all your networks! We have a great lineup of respondents as well!
Vulnerable Media Lab Presents:
Fire in the Archives: Tactical Pathways for Film Preservation in Brazil
Public Talk | Wednesday January 19
4PM–6PM EST
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Register via Eventbrite: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
On
July 29, 2021, a fire ravaged the film storage of the Brazilian Cinemateca, in São Paulo, causing irreparable damage to the country’s memory and cultural history. According to many, however, that wasn’t a mere catastrophic incident. Other museal institutions
in Brazil, such as the Museum of Portuguese Language and the National Museum, had recently met a similar fate. At that time, the Cinemateca itself had been kept empty and unmanaged by the Brazilian Federal Government for almost a year. Taken together, these
situations indicate a criminal neglect with public institutions, demonstrating that challenges for film preservation encompass much more than material precarity. In Brazil, in particular, both the dismantling of cultural organizations and the erasure of national
histories have been part of a long-term political program – a political program currently in power. How to deal with these surmounting threats for the future of audiovisual media? In this first panel of the Vulnerable Media Lab Speakers’ Series, specialists
from different Brazilian institutions reflect upon the foretold tragedy of the Cinemateca and discuss tactical pathways for film preservation in adversarial conditions.
Questions,
concerns, or technical issues? Please contact vmlab@queensu.ca