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ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY SERVICES
RESTRUCTURE DOCUMENT, 09/04/01
Thank you for granting A&LS staff the opportunity to submit our observations on the restructure of our department. In particular, I would like to comment on the following policy proposals
THE LEVEL OF FILM PRESERVATION AND FILM TO TAPE TELECINE TRANSFER WORK WILL NEED TO BE CLARIFIED, AS WILL THE AMOUNT OF DUBBING WORK (VIDEO AND AUDIO) REQUIRED.
In an e-mail widely distributed by the Manager TV Research Services (Gore Hill & Canberra), dated 19 April, 2001, Mr Salvatore Russo has reported to staff re concerns raised during the managers’ meeting re A&LS restructure over focus on telecine & film collection clarification in Phase II. In that e-mail, Mr Russo has said that:
“Discussions have been underway for years regarding the replacement of the Bosch machine. Costs to replace the machine now pegged at just under $2million. Although discussions have not been completed/resolved – the option is there to send film material off site for transfer. The ABC’s film collection will remain within the ABC.”
I am most relieved to receive the assurance from you that the film collection will remain within the ABC, but where will it be housed, if not at Ultimo?
I would respectfully suggest that we retain our telecine facility and that if the present one does become obsolete then money should be raised to buy a new one as an investment for the future and that contemporary revenue raising avenues should be explored. Can the ABC seek special consideration and federal government funding, at least to assist in the purchase of a new, more efficient telecine chain? Has the option of a reconstituted machine been investigated?
I wholeheartedly endorse the sentiments expressed in an e-mail dated 19/04/01 by my colleague in Melbourne, Susan Nicholas, that ‘if we had a viable telecine chain with expert technicians, the ABC may possibly be able to offer a service to outside film makers and thus recuperate a little of the cost’. I too have had first hand experience of the difficulties encountered by Archives staff in Melbourne to have film transfer work outsourced – has there been any consideration as to where this outsourcing of the Preservation of our film might take place? At what cost? Would our News & Current Affairs requests have priority over other clients in the case of an emergency, as occurred last week when former Goon Harry Secombe died, there was no prepared obituary and our film shot by News and This Day Tonight on the occasion of his visits to Sydney in 1970, 1972, 1976 and 1982 had not been transferred?
One of the ABC’s greatest resources is its television archive – a treasure-trove of truly extraordinary film and tape material relevant to Australia’s contemporary (and formative) history. It is, in short, a national treasure, of which all Australians can be proud.
Sadly a great deal of that national treasure lies fallow in our vaults, still on film, awaiting rejuvenation and Preservation. I estimate that around 60 percent of our news/current affairs material has been catalogued but only a small percentage of our actual programs has actually been transferred to tape. Of course, budget restrictions on staffing levels and technical assistance have prevented it received the attention it deserves.
Originally there were two television libraries in Sydney. One was known as the Federal Film Library, which had been established to house completed programs and the other, known as Film Research, housed News/CAFF items. Selected News/CAFF items were always catalogued, but originally FOUR CORNERS stories were not and although the cataloguing procedures were not of such high standards as they are now, the records are above average all the same.
Unfortunately the material held in the Federal Film Library (now the Program Library in the combined Archives & Library Services area) remains largely uncatalogued, owing to past staff restrictions, which resulted in the fact that when a program was completed, its components were allocated a card on which details of the bin number (as well as a date of transmission if we were lucky) were written, the card was then filed alphabetically and the film placed on the corresponding shelf in the vault. Once ABC employees with a memory of the content of those programs left the ABC, so did the knowledge of the material.
In 1990 an application was made by the ABC’s Television Archivist to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra to assist in funding a major Research/Cataloguing/Preservation project. The aim of this special project was to locate and identify the physical items of film and videotape material of historical and cultural significance to Aboriginal Australia which had been produced by the ABC since 1956.
As a freelance film researcher at the time, I was asked to return to the ABC to research, select, view and catalogue as many items as possible within the allocated time which was to be one year. The emphasis was to be on early material which had not been properly catalogued or not catalogued at all. Once located and assessed the items were to be inspected for suitability for duplication. A priority schedule was to be established and the preservation process begun.
The ABC also provided staffing and funds for transfer, accessioning and archiving of material .
Until this time the ABC had not recognised the need to budget large amounts of money for archival film and videotape preservation, the prime purpose of the Corporation having been to produce programs. The television archivist, however, had recognised that the film was deteriorating and that there was a need to act quickly in order to preserve this priceless record of Australia’s cultural heritage.
AIATSIS provided funding for the position of cataloguer/researcher and in return for this, the Institute received VHS copies of the film and my accompanying notes (including relevant material gleaned from the Clippings files, Document Archives & the Federal Reference Library) of all selected material to be housed in their resource centre in Canberra. The duplicated materials have allowed greater access to this enormously valuable collection and has been of great benefit to the ABC’s own programs (OPEN LEARNING:ABORIGINAL STUDIES; THE FUTURE EATERS; FRONTIER; BEYOND THE FATAL SHORE with Robert Hughes; 100 YEARS – THE AUSTRALIAN STORY to name only a few) as well as our Indigenous Programs’ Unit as well as providing an historical visual format for future researchers, historians and anthropologists within the Institute.
The transfer of the film to videotape was done on the Bosch telecine machine, with as much attention to detail as possible. Where a film had faded and required full colour grading, it could take as much as ten hours to transfer one hour of material. One one-inch tape and two VHS copies were made of each item. Film components were sent to Australian Archives for long-term storage (of course all our material is transferred to Digital SP tape now).
As it turned out, the material unearthed was so valuable that AIATSIS offered funding for an additional 12 months’ work.
All the standards set by AIATSIS for the protection of privacy, copyright and sacred/secret material are in place here. The ABC follows these guidelines in its use of Aboriginal material on television and radio and it has been established that this is the most comprehensive film and video collection in indigenous Australian culture and contemporary history in this country. Viewing access to all but a limited portion had not been previously available and the information is recorded in the ABC TV Archives’ data-base for retrieval purposes. Of course the collection is available to interested persons outside the Corporation through ABC TV LIBRARY SALES in each state.
Through this project the value of our collection was fully recognized and we have increased staffing within Preservation since that time in an attempt to address the neglect of decades. Yet there is still so much to do!
In Canberra political circles, the project is seen as a model of collaboration between government institutions.
Only today I have been advised that the ABC has placed a tender to be host broadcaster of the Centenary of Federation concert at Alice Springs in September. This concert will be a co-production with CAAMA and archival images of Aboriginal history since the arrival of Europeans will be projected on a huge screen behind the artists and musicians. The ABC is in a strong position with its tender due to the unique archival images which exist in the vaults of TV Archives and Library Services.
I would like now to draw your attention to the following programs, which without this Special Project, would probably remain part of the buried treasure:
WEEKEND MAGAZINE: The Petition Duration: 8’00 TX date: 13/10/63
Synopsis: Rich bauxite deposits have been discovered at Yirrkala, in Arnhem Land and a mining company has leased 57 square miles of land from the Australian government in order to exploit these deposits. This land has now been withdrawn from the reserve to allow for the development of the bauxite but the people of Yirrkala have protested against the violation of their land and a petition on bark has been presented to the Parliament in Canberra. In order to investigate these objections a Select Parliamentary Committee, appointed by the prime minister, has flown to Yirrkala to hear the Aborigines put their case.
The artist of the Bark Petition, Munggurawuy Yunupingu (father of Gallaruwuy and Mandawuy of Yothu Yindi and the last great bark artist of Arnhem Land) appears in the film, casually sitting on the beach under a tamarind tree painting another masterpiece. As the true significance of this film began to dawn I called on the facilities of the ABC Federal Reference Library and the librarian, Marjorie Wearne, was able to identify the members of the Select Senate Committee (which were not mentioned on the film card), which included Don Chipp (founder of the Democrats) and Gordon Bryant, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Whitlam government in 1972.
The Bark Petition, which heralded the beginning of the Land Rights movement, now hangs in the House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra.
A CHANGING RACEDuration: 52’55” Transmitted: 19/8/64
Synopsis: For the first time in Australian television history, Aboriginal people are given the opportunity to express themselves and talk about the problems which have prevented them taking their rightful place in Australian society. Some of the people featured in this film live on missions in the Northern Territory, near Alice Springs, where they are supported by the churches; some live on government reserves; some live in the city, supported by nobody except themselves.
Not one European was interviewed in this film, which was produced by a woman, Terese Denny, whose father had once been a governor of South Australia. I had found a film card filed in the program library and viewed the documentary on spec on the strength of its title alone. Later a script was found in Document Archives, which meant I was able to identify each of the interviewees by name. The file in Document Archives also revealed that this was an ABC production so we owned the Rights.
Word soon spread in academic circles of the existence of the film and in 1996 I was invited to show it at the Bathurst Film Festival where it promoted great interest and received spontaneous applause.
ALCHERINGA (Episodes 1-12) Duration: 15’00” each episode. Tx: 3/6/63
Synopsis: Produced in Victoria by Frank Few, this series presented the life Aboriginal people lived prior to the arrival of the Europeans ‘before the future overwhelmed them and the white man’s time began’. Each episode has a different subject including Making a Bark Canoe, Trading; Stone-Axe Making; Hunting for Kangaroo and Emu and many more.
The producer used the technique of re-enactment in order to tell the story and I have traced the female lead actor, Doris Simpson, to her home in Balmain, Sydney and am currently trying to contact the two children in the series on behalf of Maija Rove who is anxious to use one episode in a series called OUR HISTORY for the Children’s and Education Department.
We currently have dedicated staff working in telecine film preparations, archiving and accessioning our film collection. Please assure me the value of these staff members as well as the resources will be maintained.
I respectfully suggest that a broadening of the existing facilities and operations in Archives & Library Services right across the board would be of greater value in this restructure and this would ensure the ABC has something really special and unique to keep in trust for Australia’s future generations
So, my question is, why can’t we instigate a series of similar projects in the interests of having our film researched, catalogued and dubbed to digital tape, eventually making it available to the ABC and to all Australians through our TV Library Sales Department and Web Tara? The above films were all unearthed through a team effort dedicated to recovering and preserving our program heritage. What remains in the vault is over 30,000 cans of untransferred film which is yet to be discovered. Just one genre was researched within the collection for the AIATSIS/ABC project, imagine the footage which can be revealed during searches on other subjects.
We could have our own film festival to mark the 70th anniversary of the ABC on July 1, 2002, by repeating the transmission of selected treasures in their entirety, introduced by a contemporary John Hinde to put the subject of the evening’s offering into perspective.
We could approach state and federal government arts bodies; institutions like the CSIRO, Australian Film Institute, Australian Council for the Arts, museums, libraries and universities and art galleries to assist in funding such projects in their own interests as well as our own. Is it too late to approach the Council for the Centenary of Federation?
I would suggest the following budgetary requirements in any submission for funding on an annual basis:
1xResearcher/Cataloguer @ Grade 5 level$45,000 pa
1xResearcher/Cataloguer @ Grade 4 level$39,000 pa
1xSenior Cataloguer @ Grade 4 level$39,000 pa
1x Preservation Officer$47,.000pa
1x Film Movement Officer$36,000pa
1x Telecine facility to include
1 or 2 Digi Betacam machines + 1xVHS
1x Telecine operator$45,000
2 Print Preparation officers$42,000
5 SteenbecksAlready in possession of A$LS
Tape Stock
Once again, thank you for the opportunity to write to you, I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely
WENDY BORCHERS
A/SENIOR RESEARCHER
TV ARCHIVES & LIBRARY SERVICES
23/04/01
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