Journal of Film Preservation N° 56 - FIAF

The Council of North-American
Film Archives - CNAFA
Mary Lea Bandy and Iván Trujillo Bolio
On March 7, 1998, the first annual meeting was held in Taxco, Mexico,
of CNAFA, or the Council of North American Film Archives/Consejo
Norteamericano de Archivos Fílmicos/Conseil nord-americain des
archives du film. Members are FIAF affiliates in Canada, the United
States, and Mexico. Iván Trujillo Bolio and his colleagues at the
Filmoteca de la UNAM organized the one-day session, which focussed
on issues of concern to regional and national archives in North America.
CNAFA offers a forum for discussion of projects and concerns of mutual
interest. Projects put forth include the development of an inventory of
Mexican films including US co-productions; potential CD-ROMs on
aspects of history, on cities, and for orientation for archivists; and the
creation of a pool of restored films for festivals whose theme is preservation.
Of particular concern are archival training initiatives such as the
Moving Image Archive degree program at UCLA and the L. Jeffrey
Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman House, as well
as programs offered in Europe through the Archimedia project.
Archivists also recognized a need to develop and coordinate electronic
subtitling systems, and a request was put to Chema Prado, during the
FIAF Congress in Prague, to hold a demonstration of existing systems at
the Congress in Madrid in 1999.
Prior to the meeting in Taxco, archivists attended the opening of the new
Filmoteca facility on the UNAM campus in Mexico City. New offices,
study facilities, and a laboratory, centered on an open courtyard, comprise
the first stage of the two-storey building constructed adjacent to
climate-controlled vaults.
CNAFA members unanimously approved a proposal to meet annually in
Mexico, preferably during February. Additionally, CNAFA organized a
session at the Congress in Prague and will continue to meet each spring,
concurrent with other regional meetings during the Congress, as well as
invite all interested archivists to get together during the annual AMIA
meeting, to be held in 1998 in Miami.
The Filmoteca de la UNAM serves as secretariat, and The Museum of
Modern Art Department of Film and Video assists in keeping notes of
meetings.
61 Journal of Film Preservation / 56 / 1998
International Groupings /
Groupements internationaux