Welcome to the Archive, Part 2: Films Out of the Can Onto the Screen

Cinémathèque Francaise co-founder (and spiritual father of the Nouvelle Vague) Henri Langlois once quipped that Britain’s preservation-oriented National Film Archive’s acronym N.F.A. actually stood for “no film available”. Indeed, it has been commonly (mis)conceived that preservation and access are mutually exclusive. Yes, projection does eventually wear down celluloid prints. But if nobody watches these films, isn’t that analogous to the proverbial tree falling in the empty forest? (more…)

Save the Archive of Youth Cultures

Looking for late 80s techno flyers? Issues of German teen mag BRAVO from the 50s to today? Tapes, videos or fanzines of local punk, Goth or Emo scenes? Press clippings about moral panic that youth cultures have invariably caused, be it rowdy ducktail sporting Teddy Boys, nihilistic punks, graveyard robbing Goths, Ecstasy popping ravers, trainbombing sprayers or ultra soccer fans? An archive nestled in an unassuming commercial courtyard space in the quieter part of Berlin district Kreuzberg will provide all of the above and more. (more…)

Good News and Best Practice for Documentaries Using Archive Footage

Imagine Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY without Jimmy Carter’s downer speech on the economy and other audiovisual artefacts of U.S. collective memory; Sophie Fiennes and Slavoj Zizek without any clips from Hitchcock or David Lynch films to psychoanalyse for THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA; or Jean-Luc Godard’s HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA without, well, the cinéma. Without archival footage, BBC’s own conspiracy theorist Adam Curtis could go on the dole tomorrow. Use of third party content is a crucial practice for documentarians: to evoke another place and time, to portray and discuss historical events and to analyse the way the media shapes our perception of the world. (more…)

Congratulations: Catalonia Stops Bullfights and Animal Cruelty

News from the analog world:

The Barcelona regional parliament voted to end a form of mass entertainment based on torturing animals.

The referendum ended with 68 to 55 votes against bullfighting. Nine members of parliament abstained. A number of parties suspended party line expectations and allowed representatives vote as they saw fit. The animal protection group “Prou!” (”Enough is Enough!”) brought this issue to the fore. Last year “Prou” filed a petition and delivered more than 180,000 signatures in support of their goal. (more…)

realsoccer: Ultras #1

Confession to make: One of the company’s co-owner’s is a soccer nut. That’s me. Die hard fan (and member) of soccer’s finest Eintracht Braunschweig, supporting soccer dad of nine-year-old daughter playing the Philipp-Lahm-position at Berlin club Türkiyemspor’s E-girl-team.

Confession #2: I like to mingle with the ultras in the stadium. Ultras - for those few readers unaware - are committed fans rejecting soccer’s general move into commercialism and transforming fans into customers. Ultras can be easily spotted in each stadium forming a tightly knitted mass of chanting, jumping, flag-waving bodies, mostly male&young. And that’s 90 min. plus half-time-break plus before and after the game (especially ‘after’ as we’re often the last ones being allowed to leave the cage designated for us and monitored by uniformed authority). (more…)