[Frameworks] Index of experimental film and/or video art collections and archives

[Pip Chodorov]

Dear Anna,

I can point you to two databases that were 
created for this purpose but are no longer 
accessible.

There used to be a database at www.24-25.fr but 
this website is no longer active do to an 
irreversible server crash. You can see a snapshot 
of it here: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20140302203010/http://24-25.fr/
It was compiled by a group comprising almost all 
the distribution cooperatives in France and was 
to include also all museum and cinematheques with 
film collections when the project collapsed.

The architecture was based on another database of 
media art archves that is also unfortunately out 
of commission though you can still consult the 
home page: http://www.gama-gateway.eu/

These databases are inactive because they were 
designed to migrate information from each 
organization's online database and funnel all the 
data and metadata into an index that would allow 
you to search for any film or filmmaker and find 
results in every archive. However, unlike a 
search engine for best plane fares that simply 
answers each query with a specialized search, the 
information was compiled regularly on the 
database server which required regular 
maintenance and complex updating because each 
individual database is so different. State 
funding dried up and no one group could manage 
running the index.

As it stands now, each organization has its own 
database but there is no community database.

Almost every country has an archive of 
experimental production, to name just two 
examples the archives of The Balázs Béla Studio 
(BBS) or the Serbian alternative film archive 
http://www.dksg.rs/afc-redakcija.  There are also 
extensive collections in Asia but again you will 
have to consult each collection individually. 
There are many resources available, such as this 
list, but for now still no database of all 
archives.

Good luck,
Pip Chodorov



At 11:12 +0100 21/02/16, Anna Briggs wrote:
>I am writing to ask where I might possibly find 
>an index of experimental film and/or video art 
>collections and archives. I am particularly 
>looking for archives in non-Western countries, 
>to investigate as part of a thesis chapter about 
>the experimental paradigm. I have consulted 
>lists of films archives compiled by the 
>International Federation of Film Archives, the 
>Association of Moving Image Archivists and the 
>Library of Congress, but I wonder if there is a 
>more specialised database.
>
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