Making a Story from Archives

Story
Country
Italy
Year
2019
Storyteller
Chiara Rutolo
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Overview

Being aware of the major role that the audiovisual archives play in building a common pan-European memory, the international contest “Making a Story from Archives”, promoted by COPEAM –Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators - has the objective to encourage the creative use of audiovisual collections among young professionals. Such goal is attained via the production of media contents promoting a larger mutual understanding between societies and cultures through impactful images and sounds from the past. In the last two years, COPEAM has launched two editions of “Making a story from archives” contest, as part of the mission and activities carried out by its Audiovisual Heritage Commission. This Commission works around the setting up of projects devoted to the promotion, safeguard and digitization of the Euro-Mediterranean audio and video archives, with the purpose of preserving and enhancing the heritage of this region. The first edition was dedicated to Balkans cultural memories and was opened to the participation of young professionals from the Balkans region. For this year edition, COPEAM wishes to enhance the common cultural heritage of the Mediterranean women and girls, by enlarging the contest participation to South-Mediterranean broadcasters, thus promoting cross-border cooperation and highlighting cultural diversity as an added value of the Euro-Med area. In the framework of the 2nd edition of the competition, and with the objective to promote European heritage, reward communities for their efforts to engage in its preservation and reinforce their sense of belonging to a common European space, we foresee to offer a “European Heritage Special Prize” to the best documentary focused on fostering the understanding of intangible practices, representations, expressions, knowledge etc. of European communities.

The contest’s first edition, “A place of honour to the Balkans’ heritage”, was focused on Balkans’ cultural memories: participants realized archive-based documentaries and short films devoted to the promotion and preservation of this region’s history, gastronomy, music and dances, traditions and societies. Furthermore, the 1st edition aimed at promoting, on one hand, the cultural richness of a fast developing region after a long and painful period of conflicts; on the other hand, at highlighting the importance of the audiovisual heritage via the retrieval, through images, of the collective memory of Balkans countries. The contest was opened for 2 months (April-May 2018) and 11 short documentaries - produced using exclusively archive material or mixing archive images and sounds with new shootings, private archives, photos and other - where submitted by the public broadcasters’ young professionals of Croatia, Kosovo, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. COPEAM awarded the prize for best project to the documentary “Still Broadcasting”, by Vojin Ivkov from the radio-television of Serbia Vojvodina. The history of the Balkans was summed up through the projection - on the ruins of the bombed building of the national television - of images from the recent events having deeply affected this area of the world. Two special mentions were also attributed to “Children of the fatherland”, by Ms. Rogojana RALUCA-MIRABELAfrom the Romanian Television TVR, on Ceausescu’s policy on family and children, and to “Ne čakaj na tramvaj - Do not wait for the tram”, by Mr. Žiga BONČA from the Slovenian broadcaster RTVslo, which narrates the creation and disappearance of Ljubljana historical tramway. These 11 works covered different historical and cultural aspects of these European countries, such as the coexistence between different peoples, religions and traditions or changes brought by the latest technological innovations, but also pointed out the role that radio and television play in people’s daily life, both nowadays and in the past. All the products are available on COPEAM’s YouTube channel, in a dedicated playlist and can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu8m7zH6iTYQgZp7jAdc4_Ck96slFlkoP. Following the success of the first edition, COPEAM has recently launched the second one, built upon synergies between its Audiovisual Heritage and Gender Equality and Diversity Commissions. In recent years, women and girls’ rights and gender equal opportunities have been put at the core of international debates and at the heart of many sustainable development initiatives. Bearing this in mind and being aware of the major role that audiovisual archives can play in building collective memories, the new contest aims at encouraging the creative use of archive media content through the production of new works promoting a deeper understanding of Mediterranean women’s diversity, history and cultural memories. This 2nd edition, addressed to both the Balkans and the South-Mediterranean broadcasters, has been officially opened on the 22nd of March this year and will remain open until the end of May 2019.

European Dimension

COPEAM’s Audiovisual Heritage Commission works around the setting up of projects devoted to the promotion, the safeguard and the digitization of the audiovisual archives of both European and South-Med neighbouring countries’ public broadcasters, with the purpose of preserving and enhancing citizens’ collective memory. Being COPEAM a network devoted to the promotion of dialogue, cultural exchanges and professional cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region, we understand European heritage as a universal set of values whose importance goes far beyond the generational, cultural and geographical boundaries of Europe, and to the protection and promotion of which our network is strongly committed. Bearing this in mind, we conceived “Making a story from Archives” as a tool to promote European intangible cultural heritage both inside the European Union and among its Southern neighbouring countries. The documentaries and short films submitted to the contest intend to promote European cultural richness highlighting the importance of AV archives to preserve a record of the past for future generations. Indeed, in line with the principles of the European Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage, adopted in 2001, we believe that audiovisual archives reflect the cultural identity and diversity of European peoples, united by a common history and heritage. By promoting an active use of archive material for creating new works, “Making a story from Archives” brings the past closer to the youngster, allowing them to travel across time and cross boundaries in a pan-European perspective, which goes beyond the Mediterranean and includes Northern African countries and the Middle East, thus fostering common understanding and underpinning integration in the region. Audio and video records are essential parts of the European cultural heritage of the modern era, just as rich as it is fragile: its protection and safeguard are necessary not only to preserve testimonies and memories of the past for the benefit of future generations, but also to contribute to develop an intergenerational dialogue between the past, the present and the future. Images and sounds are often a mirror of societies, consequently they offer an excellent and accurate reflection of the many and varied environments, languages, habits and behaviours that compose the diversified but unite European common heritage. As for what concerns the links between the project and key European events, the awarding ceremony of the 1st edition was hosted on 26th October 2017 in Zagreb, on the occasion of the National Conference on film archives organised by the Croatian National Archive to celebrate the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. The contest and the winning documentary were then presented during COPEAM 25th annual Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, an official event entitled “Heritage and media: preserving the future through our past: an opportunity for growth and democracy?”, organized in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage.