Values of Film Heritage

The School of Media and Communication (SMC) and  Cultural & Creative Industries Exchange  at the University of Leeds (UK) are glad to invite you to the 2nd SMC Audiovisual Heritage Meeting in conjunction with the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage:

VALUES of FILM HERITAGE
Defining, Assessing and Bringing Them to People

Leeds, 27th of October 2014, 9.30 - 13.30

European policy-makers have only recently started taking into account film heritage. Digital technology seems to have been the driving force as a number of digitization projects have been initiated around Europe with mixed results (Images for the Futures, BBC Digital Media, European Film Gateway).

At the same time, an increasing number of scholars in film and media studies began considering the importance of engaging with film heritage. Also in in this case the attention and the interests have been generated by the potentialities that digital technology offers in restoring and providing access to collections.

However, it seems that digitization is often considered as the objective more than the means thanks to which certain goals are to be achieved. It seems that when film heritage is taken into account, basic legitimacy issues necessitate discussion in order to further define and understand its values.

To this end, this edition of the SMC Audiovisual Heritage Meeting poses three fundamental questions:

• Should policymakers support film heritage preservation and audience development with more conviction? Why does it matter?
• Why might it be important to systematically integrate archival discourse into Film and Media Studies?
• What are the practical initiatives that archives, universities and policy-makers need to focus on and support?

Programme:

9.30 - coffee and tea

10 am - Introduction
10.15 - 11.00 am -  Simon Popple  (University of Leeds, School of Media and Communication, Senior Lecturer in Cinema and Deputy Head of School) [plenary speech]
11.00 - 11.45 am -  David Walsh (Imperial War Museum - London / International Federation of Film Archives) [plenary speech]

11.45 am- 12.15 pm - coffee break

12.15 pm - 1.30 pm -  round table (chaired by Luca Antoniazzi):

prof. Vanessa Toulmin (University of Sheffield)
prof. Andrew Higson (University of York)
Paul Goodman (National Media Museum)
David Wilson (Bradford UNESCO City of Film)

1.30 pm -  Lunch

The event will take place at the University of Leeds Campus in the Brotherton Room (Parkinson Building - Brotherton Library) on Monday 27th of October 2014 - 9.30 am - 1.30 pm

The admission if FREE but registration is required. You can register following this link:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/values-of-film-heritage-2nd-smc-audiovisual-...