Film Heritage, Digital Future: Practice and Sustainability for the Film Archive Sector
A one day event for professionals in film and TV archiving

Friday 4 March 2011
10 am to 4.30 pm
Organised and hosted by Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research
Birmingham City University
Margaret St Campus

What issues are facing film and other audio-visual archives? What are the immediate challenges for archive holders of cuts to public funding and threats to intellectual property in a digital age? How is our film heritage to be sustained and used? What kinds of collaborations might support the legacy of UK film and prompt innovation and best practice?

This event offers an opportunity for those with a professional interest in the film sector to hear about best practice in a range of public-funded projects and to share insights and ideas about the challenges for the audio-visual archive sector in the digital age.

The event will be anchored by the presentation of a range of innovative projects funded by Screen West Midlands under the Digital Film Archive Fund. Since the launch of the fund by Film Council in 2009, these projects have created new archival material, investigated and re-purposed existing material, reaching new audiences and prompting engagement with archive issues and cultural heritage. As the projects seek to secure their legacy, develop and expand their scope, the issues they face will provide a prompt for discussion.

The event will feature contributions from the BBC, SWM, Media Archive for Central England (MACE), EUScreen, workers from a variety of archives and from the education sector.

There will be presentations, screenings, opportunities for networking and discussion of current challenges in the sector.

Refreshments and lunch will be provided.

RSVP: paul.long@bcu.ac.uk