The Cinemathek of the Berlin Municipal and State Library, located in the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek in Kreuzberg, holds the largest film collection of any public library in Germany. Our international, multilingual selection offers nearly 100,000 movies on Blu-ray, 4K UHD, DVD and VHS for rent - from current blockbusters to genre cinema.

As part of this year's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and in time for Halloween, we are highlighting a very special part of our collection and exhibit a physical media presentation with horror and exploitation films from Hong Kong. Over the years, the ZLB has built an extensive public archive in this area, which holds many rarities that are otherwise difficult to find - including VHS titles that have never been released digitally.
There is much to discover!

The First Iraqi Visual Memory Conference is a pioneering initiative, representing the first endeavor in Iraq to meet the urgent need to preserve our invaluable audiovisual heritage and visual memory. This project is a national project that is considered the first of visual memory In iraq. Over the years, attempts have been ongoing to achieve this movement to preserve cultural heritage, and this is precisely what this conference aims to achieve, goals and objectives of the national project to preserve visual memory, which is an integral part of the Iraqi cultural heritage. It will coincide with UNESCO's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and to stimulate national and international efforts aimed at protecting Iraq's audiovisual heritage and our rich visual memory.

The Iraqi Visual Memory Committee is keen for this conference to be the starting point for preserving this memory by gathering people, institutions, and universities from countries around the world in Baghdad and cooperating with them in order to preserve and protect the Iraqi visual memory, provided that this is through cooperation agreements with institutions specialized in documentation, restoration and archiving and have several experiences.

Holding the conference is a step to establish the importance of preserving our audiovisual cultural heritage and our visual memory and will be a pioneering platform to shed light on the importance of preserving the audiovisual heritage inside and outside Iraq through the discussion sessions that are presented, and to be an annual work that is permanent throughout the time and culminates in the conference.

In 2023 The Bulgarian National Film Archive digitally restored this archival treasure. In 2024 it was screened in several festivals and events including the Nitrate Film Festival in Belgrade, the Budapest Film Classic Marathon, and the Days of Bulgarian Classic Cinema in Lisbon. The film is finally coming home to the Bulgarian National Film Archive`s cinema ,,Odeon'' for this special screening on World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

The Sea, 1967, 62 min., black and white

Director: Petar Donev

Scriptwriter: Georgi Branev

Cinematographer: Boris Yanakiev

Composer: Kiril Donchev

Cast: Stefan Danailov, Severina Teneva, Itzhak Fintsi

Annotation: Zhana and Toni meet on a crowded beach. She is hanging around bars; he is seeking amorous adventures. They spent the night together, then jump into Mercedes sport car and get into a breath-taking race. In the morning, they learn that a man has been run over during the night. A dark suspicion comes over them. They travel again the same road again. The resulting confessions strip their masks from them... Believing him to be guilty, Toni wants to turn him in. However, the real culprit is detected. They move on - but in different direction...

Restoration credits:

Digital restoration by Bulgarian National Film Archive in 2023, made possible in the framework of A Season of Classic Films, an initiative of ACE - Association des Cinemateques Europeenes and supported by the EU Creative MEDIA Program.

Antonia Kovacheva – Project manager

Rosen Spasov – Project coordinator

Angel Radev – Technical consultant

Galina Gencheva – Consultant

Krastina Ilieva – Film Prints

The film was Digitally restored in Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, 2023.

Aleksandar Erdeljanovic - Project coordinator

Dubravko Badalic – Mastering

Aleksandar Stojsin - Sound restoration

Restoration artists:

Stevan Stanic

Masa Badalic

Milan Miljusevic

Bojan Perkovic

Nikola Sobic

The film had its official premiere in Sofia in December 2023 as part of the A Season of Classic Films 2023. 

The SABC Radio Archives, the radio archives for the South African public broadcaster, will publish in Corporate Communications advocacy material for the Radio Archives in the two weeks leading up to the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2024.  

We will do the engagement on Friday the 25th of October.  We are planning to invite fellow colleagues to come to the Archives to see where we are, and what we do. We will have a lucky draw for everybody coming, and all will get something from the archives to take away. (We have music CDs, Wildlife Sounds of the African Bush, and Truth and Reconciliation Commission compilations, as well as radio goodies sourced from the different radio stations).  

The archivists for the 19 radio stations, will also alert their respective radio stations, about the day, and about the work the archives do. We are hoping to secure a few interviews at the different radio stations, who broadcast in all 11 official languages of South Africa. 

The advocacy project will start from the 14th of October. 

The 10 prompts that will be used in our Corporate Communications:

Daily Prompts for WDAVH 2024 Corporate Communications (14 Oct – 25 Oct):

Day 1: Introduction to WDAVH 2024- Announce the upcoming celebration of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (WDAVH) on October 27, 2024. Highlight the importance of this day in raising awareness about the preservation of audiovisual materials.

Day 2: Invitation to the Archives- Invite colleagues to visit the SABC Radio Archives on October 25, 2024. Share insights into what the Archives do, including collecting, cataloguing, preserving, and making available radio archives from 19 radio stations.

Day 3: The Urgency of Digitization-  Discuss the urgency of digitization in preserving our legacy. Emphasize the obsolescence of current formats and playout equipment, and the need for immediate action to protect our audiovisual heritage.

Day 4: Celebrating Our Legacy-  Share stories about the rich history of the radio stations represented in the Archives. Highlight how these stories contribute to our collective cultural heritage and inspire future generations.

Day 5: The Role of Audiovisual Archives-  Explain the role of audiovisual archives in storytelling. Discuss how they provide accessible narratives that connect audiences to diverse cultures and experiences.

Day 6: Call to Action-  Encourage colleagues to participate in the preservation movement. Share information about the events being organized on and around October 27, and invite them to contribute their ideas and experiences.

Day 7: Resources for Engagement-  Provide links to the dedicated webpage featuring the poster and video for WDAVH 2024. Encourage colleagues to use these resources to reach out to different communities and promote the celebration.

Day 8: Reflection on the Impact of Archives-  Reflect on the impact of audiovisual archives on society. Discuss how they capture the depth and variety of human creativity and the importance of preserving these materials for future generations.

Day 9: Final Countdown-  As the event approaches, remind colleagues of the significance of their participation. Highlight the collective effort needed to ensure the preservation of our audiovisual heritage.

Day 10: Celebration Day-  On October 27, which we will celebrate on 25th Oct, we celebrate the achievements of the SABC Radio Archives, and the global community dedicated to preserving audiovisual heritage. Share the location of the Radio Archives and encourage participation in the day's events.

Films do also age. They suffer mechanical damage through handling. But there are also chemical, often quite colorful aging processes. Time and again, films in an advanced state of decomposition can be saved in the Lichtspiel. A historic flight over Zurich, for example, or footage from Bern around 1916. We travel to the mountains with these newly restored copies and go to Leukerbad for a cure. An evening as colorful as chemical decay.

The event will feature screenings and discussions of films from the institution's collection, presented in various formats

The age of the moving image began with the birth of cinema in 1895, and magnetic tape was the medium that further spread the moving image into people's daily lives. Videotapes were used in a wide range of fields, including the broadcasting industry, folklore and historical research, and for recording performing arts, music, and sports. In the 1980s, many people recorded video at home, school, and in their communities. UNESCO and IASA have issued a warning that this vast amount of videotape footage may become inaccessible forever if it is not converted to digital files by around 2025. As this year's special event commemorating UNESCO's World Audiovisual Heritage Day (October 27), NFAJ will continue to address this issue.

Date: Oct 5 (Sat)　2:00 pm - 4:25 pm
Location: Nagase Memorial Theatre OZU (2nd floor)
Capacity: 310 seats ＊Advance reservation required.
＊For more detailed information, please see the webpage of the event (in Japanese)

Keynote video lecture:
 Magnetic Tape Won't Wait: Challenges in Video Tape Preservation and Digitization
 Morgan Morel (Video Lab Supervisor at Library of Congress National Audiovisual Conservation Center)

Presentation:
 Tomonori Nakanishi (National Film Archive of Japan)
 Junko Uchida (National Museum of Japanese History)
 Nobuko Miyazaki (National Theatre)
 Satoko Konuma (National Diet Library)

↓Click to view the leaflet (in Japanese).
http://www.nfaj.go.jp/english/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/08/NFAJ_Unesco_2024.pdf