Photo credits: Felix Janssens CC BY-SA

In 1927, when Esfir Schub released her commissioned film The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, she hardly knew that her extensive use of film footage and newsreels of the event would mark the invention of a new ‘genre’: the archive based production or compilation genre. Television has evidently adopted the format, but audio-visual archives have fuelled a wide array of programmes and genres beyond this compilation exercise.

Issue 8 of the VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture invites scholars, archivists, producers and other practitioners to consider, highlight and elaborate on the use and re-use of moving image archives in media productions (for cinema, television, web, etc.). Contributions are welcome in the form of (short) articles or video essays.

Proposals are invited to explore (but not limited to) the following topics and questions:

• Has the digital environment created a paradigm shift in the use of audiovisual archival materials?
• The authenticity of audiovisual archives in the digital environment.
• In what ways can audiovisual archives transform our relationship to the past? What is the role of archives in helping us reconnect with or understand the past? How do national/organisational archive policies impact or limit the histories that are informed by these archives?
• The audiovisual archive as proof, testimony or document of reality, as shared heritage or collective memory.
• Case studies using moving images as historical sources.
• The use of archives in creative productions.
• Ahistoricism in the use of audiovisual archival materials.
• Found footage in moving image productions.
• Compilation programmes studied through issues of representation, distribution, production, reception, etc.
• Various formats and subgenres of compilation programmes: biographies, historical productions, art forms, etc.
• Comparative studies of the compilation genre.
• The search for identity in audiovisual archive collections.
• The use of national audiovisual collections in a European or international context.

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different expertise and interests in television and media history.

Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on 31 January 2015. Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata (journal@euscreen.eu). A notice of acceptance will be sent to authors in the 3rd week of February. Articles (2 – 4,000 words) will be due on 15 May 2015.

For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the co-editors: Mette Charis Buchman (mch@dr.dk) and Claude Mussou (cmussou@ina.fr)

VIEW is proud to be an open access journal. All articles are made findable through the DOAJ and EBSCO databases.