Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

El Irish Film Archive (IFA) celebra este
año su 10° aniversario. Creado a partir
del National Film Institute, su
mandato comprende promover el
acceso al acervo cinematográfico
irlandés. El IFA ingresó en la FIAF en
1989 y solicitó el estatuto de Miembro
de la FIAF obteniéndolo en el 2001. El
archivo conserva una colección de
aproximadamente 20.000 rollos de
película, organiza regularmente
proyecciones y ofrece todos los
servicios de un archivo completo.
Financiado por el Irish Arts Council, el
archivo emplea 5 personas a tiempo
completo y 5 a tiempo parcial. Su
política de adquisición no le permite
adquirir materiales pagando por ellos;
por consiguiente el enriquecimiento
de sus colecciones depende de la
obtención de materiales de fuentes
privadas y donaciones. El IFA
suministra copias de películas
irlandesas a festivales de cine
nacionales e internacionales.
La mayor parte de las películas en
nitrato han sido copiadas a material
acetato recientemente y los
responsables del IFA esperan poder
instalar próximamente un depósito
de almacenamiento más amplio para
la conservación de su colección de
originales. El archivo ha constituido
un Comité de consulta compuesto de
especialistas de archivos de Irlanda
con el objeto de tratar temas tales
como el estatuto de las películas en
depósito y la construcción de nuevas
instalaciones.
companies and filmmakers make constant use of our extensive
holdings, frequently using Archive footage, held and supplied by the
Film Archive, in documentary programmes.
Staff and Funding
The bulk of the Irish Film Archive’s funding comes from the Irish Arts
Council and as with many archives that are not financed directly by the
exchequer, funding is a major concern. As most archivists will relate,
the budget made available to archives and the ethical aspirations and
professional sensibilities of the film archivist are often diametrically
opposed. Necessity is said to be the mother of invention and as with
many smaller film archives the staff of the IFA have ensured the
resources available to them have been effectively employed. As is
common in many cultural institutions the Archive has been understaffed
and under-resourced for much of its existence. However, despite
these difficulties the IFA has been fortunate to have had an energetic
and highly experienced staff, who have ensured that the Archive has
developed professionally to the extent that it was made a full member
of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) last year. We have
benefited from the advice and support of our FIAF colleagues as well as
from FIAF training programmes, especially the Summer School, which is
ideally suited to small archives such as the Irish Film Archive.
At present the Archive employs 5 full-time staff, the Head of the
Archive, a Collections Archivist, Curator, Librarian with responsibility for
the paper archive and a full-time cataloguer. In addition to this there
are 5 part-time staff, funded by FAS, a government work scheme, who
process incoming material and address the cataloguing backlog, as well
as undertaking administrative duties and servicing requests from the
public. It is unfortunate that due to the terms of FAS employment
schemes part-time employees can only be employed for limited periods
of time. It is hoped in the near future that the Archive will receive
sufficient funding to allow it to retain these part-time staff on a more
permanent basis. This would allow us to reap the long-term benefits of
our investment in human resources and provide the Archive with a
more permanent staff structure.
Acquisition and Exhibition
The Irish Film Archive has a non-purchase acquisition policy and
acquires donations from private sources as well as from production
companies and professional bodies. The Irish Film Archive is fortunate
in that there are no regional film Archives in Ireland competing with it
for the acquisition of collections. The Irish Film Board is a valuable
source of material, as it requires production companies to deposit in
the Archive, a preservation copy of all films, which they have helped to
finance. Negotiations continue between the Archive and relevant
government departments to ensure the deposit of a comprehensive
collection of Irish material under a system of statutory deposit, as
outlined in the 1997 Cultural Institutions Act. This will of course have
both spatial and resource implications for the Archive. It is unclear at
what stage statutory deposit will become a reality (if ever) as a number
of sections of the Act have yet to be put in place.
The Archive takes seriously its mission to make Ireland’s moving image
heritage available through exhibition and endeavours to promote and
81 Journal of Film Preservation / 65 / 2002