This document discusses a collaboration between the Flemish Audiovisual Archives (VAF) and the Royal Film Archive of Belgium (Cinematek) to preserve and digitize Flemish non-fiction film heritage. The collaboration involved inventorying film collections at various organizations, depositing the films at Cinematek's climate-controlled vaults, registering and describing the films, performing preventive conservation, and digitizing priority films. As a result, over 15,000 films have been registered, stored safely, and 3,100 have been digitized, helping to preserve and provide access to important parts of Flanders' non-fiction film heritage.

1. Collaboration on
registration
deposit and
digitisation
of Flemish
non-fiction
film heritage
Picture: Bruno Mestdagh
Bruno Mestdagh (Royal Film Archive of Belgium)
Brecht Declercq (meemoo)
FIAF Conference 2022 – Budapest, 25.01.2022

2. What if ...
Where it all started

3. An important part of your
nation’s non-fiction film
heritage
is scattered over
many tens of
organisations:
 Libraries
 Archives
 Museums
 Government bodies
 Performing arts organisations

4. Photo: Liberaal Archief / N. Verbeke
None of these
organisations
had
film archiving
as their
core business?

5. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
None of these
organisations had
appropriate
vaulting
for these
film collections?

6. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
None of these
organisations
had
properly trained
film archivists
among their staff?

7. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
Almost none of
these organisations
had
working
film viewing tables
on premise?

8. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
Almost none of
these organisations
had
a solid idea about
how many films
they had?

9. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
Almost none of these
organisations had
an idea about what
their films were
about?
Let alone ...
what their heritage
value exactly was?

10. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
Vinegar ratios
were
around an
estimated 60%
based on nothing
more than
sampling?

11. Photo: Industriemuseum / N. Verbeke
... and an estimated
10%
were above
the autocatalytic
point?

12. What would you do?
If you were to draft
a plan
 to saveguard
 make accessible
this film heritage?
Photo: meemoo / K. Broos

13. The start of a fruitful
collaboration
Between ...

14. Responsible for digitising and making
accessible the Flemish audiovisual heritage
* until 2020 known as VIAA

15. Guardians of cinematographic heritage in
Belgium since 1938
* also known as the Royal Film Archive of Belgium

16. What did we do?
How does it work? What’s the trick?

17. 1.
Make and maintain
an inventory
of all film objects
in the collections involved
Photo: meemoo / K. Broos

18. 2.
Convince to deposit
at Cinematek’s
climate-controlled
film vaults in Brussels
(agreement based on ACE’s template)
Photo: meemoo / K. Broos

19. 3.
Transporting
all film objects
to Cinematek’s
vaults

20. 4.
Registering
all films,
their technical
characteristics and
describing their content
Photo: meemoo / K. Broos

21. 5.
Take all appropriate
preventive
conservation actions:
 new core,
 new can,
 splice check,
 leadertape check,
 vinegar measurement, ...

22. 6.
Ensure
Long term
preservation

23. 7.
Set up
large
digitisation projects:
most threatened first!

25. 9.
Encourage
the digitised films
to be re-used
by and for
several target groups
Photo: meemoo / K. Broos

26. Cinéma Rural - cagnet.be/page/project-cinema-rural

27. ANGLES - kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/3_research/31_ourresearch/angles

28. The Archives for Education – onderwijs.hetarchief.be

29. A few (preliminary) results
2015 – 2022 and still going strong

30. • ca. 15.750 films ... and counting
• registered
• described
• treated with preventive conservation
• safely stored
• 62 content partners involved
• ca. 3100 films digitised
• solid base for
• future selection / prioritisation
• further digitisation

31. Brecht Declercq
Brecht.declercq@meemoo.be
Bruno Mestdagh
bruno.mestdagh@cinematek.be