Journal of Film Preservation N° 56 - FIAF

SEAPAVAA - Two Years on
Ray Edmondson
Readers will recall, in previous issues of JFP, reports on the ASEAN
Training Seminars for AV archivists held at the National Film and Sound
Archive in Canberra, and later on the establishment of the South East
Asia/Pacific AudioVisual Archive Association, which held its inaugral
conference in Manila, Philippines, in February 1996. Since then, annual
conferences have been held in Jakarta, Indonesia (March 1997) and
Hanoi, Vietnam (March 1998), this most recent event hosted by the
Vietnam Film Institute (see separate box). Membership has grown
steadily and a website and listserve established - if you haven’t yet seen
it, I commend the website at http://members.xoom.com/avarchives -
there you can read SEAPAVAA’s newletters, its constitution, get to know
its membership and how
to contact them.
What is SEAPAVAA and why is it needed? In a nutshell, let me describe
it:
- It relates to a specific, contiguous geographic region: South East Asia,
Australasia and the adjoining Pacific. Its agenda focusses on the needs
of these countries, which share particular climatic characteristics (most
are tropical) as well as economic, historical and political links. All full
members must be audiovisual archives located within this region: but
SEAPAVAA also welcomes associate members from anywhere in the
world.
- It provides a forum for organisations as well as functioning as a
professional association for individual practioners. Its constitution
specifically caters for this dual role (you can read the constitution on
the website). Membership is diverse: it embraces commercial as well as
non-commercial and cultural organsiations.
- It embraces all the audiovisual media: film, television, video, radio,
recorded sound.
- The promotion of audiovisual archiving, both as a profession and as
an important government priority, and the raising of public awareness,
is a central concern. In many countries, resources are limited,
audiovisual archiving still has a fairly short history, and large amounts
of the audiovisual heritage have already been lost. (It is hoped that
some material may survive elsewhere and, over time, can be
recovered).
- There is an emphasis on sharing, cooperation and self-help. This
includes an active approach to training, sharing of skills and
knowledge; the adoption of regionwide standards; the building of a
professional community and a communication network. The
development of a shared cataloguing database began late last year; a
63 Journal of Film Preservation / 56 / 1998