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This video is a sample of the types of collections we will be working with during the inaugural AIM Workshops in October 2016.
Please play through to the end credits to learn more about the films, the directors, and their countries of production. 

ARCHIVES IN MOTION WORKSHOPS FAQ

WHO: AIM EXPERT TRAINERS
WHO: PARTICIPANTS
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​We have 19 expert trainers confirmed from archives, museums, universities, and film and video laboratories in the US, India, and Europe. You can click on the icon to learn more about our AIM team.

Shpend Bengu: Universiteti Europian i Tiranës/UET, Albania
Koushik Prasanta Bhattacharya, Quality Matters, Navi Mumbai, India
Kate Dollenmayer: Wende Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA
Nathaniel Dushku: Boston Diva Productions, Los Angeles, California, USA
Skip Elsheimer: A/V Geeks, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Jonathan Farbowitz: NYU MIAP, New York City, New York,  USA
Nancy Goldman: Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, USA
Ana Grgic: CBS, London, England; Balkan Cultural Centre, Split, Croatia
Reto Kromer: AV Preservation by reto.ch, Lausanne, Switzerland
Regina Longo: ACP, New York City, New York, USA
Andrea McCarty: ACP, Middletown,Connecticut, USA
Jurij Meden: George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, USA
Stephen Parr: San Francisco Media Archive, San Francisco, California, USA
Gabor Pinter: Hungarian FilmLab, Budapest, Hungary
Elma Tataragic: Sarajevo Film Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Andy Uhrich: Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
David Walsh: Imperial War Museum, London, England
Allie Whalen: NYU MIAP, Chapel Hill, North Carolina,  USA
Lindsay Zarwell: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA

​We are excited to confirm that all invited countries are sending representatives from several of their archives and libraries. We have 50 confirmed participants from the following institutions:

ALBANIA
AQSHF (Albanian National Film Archives), Concept/COD
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Cinematheque of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kinoteka Republike Srpske
CROATIA
DAST (State Archive in Split), HRT (Croatian Radio Television),
Hrvatski Filmski Arhiv (Croatian National Film Archives)
KOSOVO
Kosova Film, Kosovo Cinematography Center, RTK (Radio Television Kosovo),
National Library of Kosova "Pjetër Bogdani"
FYR MACEDONIA
Cinematheque of Macedonia
MONTENEGRO
Cinematheque of Montenegro
SERBIA
Yugoslav Cinematheque, Filmske Novosti
SLOVENIA
Slovenian Cinematheque,
Slovenski filmski arhiv/ Slovene Film Archives

WHO: AIM LOCAL HOSTS
We have partnered with several individuals and institutions in Tirana, Albania and Kosovo to host AIM's inaugural  October Workshops. These groups will host the workshops at their venues,  lend technical, logistical and programming support for the evening events and public programs affiliated with the workshops, and take part in lectures and workshops.
ACP: Iris Elezi, Famtir Koçi, Thomas Logoreci
Albanian Ministry of Culture
AQSHF (Albanian National Film Archives): Elvira Diamanti, Archives Director
Bunker Film: Eno Milkani
Concept/COD (Center for Openness and Dialogue): Falma Fshazi
DokuFest: Veton Nurkollari, Artistic Director
Marubi Film & Multimedia Academy: Kujtim Çashku, Eol Çashku
Open Mind
QKK (Albanian Center of Cinematography/Albanian National Film Center): Ilir Butka
WHAT: CONTINUING EDUCATION WORKSHOPS FOR AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES PROFESSIONALS
​Hands-on, laboratory-style workshops for archives professionals, run by an expert international group of audiovisual archives professionals, who are donating their time and expertise because they are committed to working with archives at risk to aid them in achieving self-sustaining preservation for access. The goal of AIM is to work with participants to maximize their available resources by working with their existing budgetary and staffing constraints to demonstrate that a little DIY initiative goes a long way when  combined with the expertise and knowledge base that the archives staff hold. AIM is committed to using the latest technologies and best practices available to archives professionals to digitize, document, and share their collections via an online union catalog that will be built during the workshops, and maintained by ACP and our partners at the Internet Archive and A/V Geeks with ongoing input of the participating archives. Each participant will be invited to bring a film reel from their own archives to digitize during the workshops, and as a group we will also work on a compromised feature film—and its accompanying paper, photo and ephemera —from the Albanian National Film Archive's collection.

All expert trainers will receive travel support from the Albanian Ministry of Culture, the US Embassy in Tirana, the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), or the Orphan Film Symposium. All participating institutions will fund the travel for their staff to Tirana, and ACP will host them during their stay.  The Internet Archive has provided AIM with the incredible in-kind gift of unlimited storage and metadata support for the life of the project. AIM and ACP are currently preparing the details of the workshop schedule, and working diligently to secure the matching funds for a film scanner, and other necessary materials for the workshops.

You can read the appeal letter from the ACP Board and donate here.

The ultimate goal: self-sustaining preservation programs, with global audiences for these archives amazing collections, a sample of which you can see at the top of this page: Yugoslav Black Wave films of the 1970s, the animated films of the Zagreb School, the avant-garde works of the Split Film School, the historical-revisionist epics of the Albanian Kinostudio and Serbia’s Avala Film Studio, where Orson Welles and Richard Burton shot and starred in films in the 1960s alongside locals, amateur and home movies from all participating countries, newsreel and documentary collections from all participating countries, and much, much more. 

During the workshops, there will be a series of special screenings and programs open to the public and to the workshop participants, including:
• A special open air screening of the Library of Congress and ACP restoration of TOMKA AND HIS FRIENDS ( Xhanfise Keko, 1977) in the town of Berat, where it was shot. The cast and crew of the film will be present to share their experiences of working on this beloved Albanian film.
• A special screening and discussion with Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turaljic of her award winning film CINEMA KOMUNISTO (2011) that chronicles the rise and fall of Avala Fillm Studios.
• A special screening and discussion with Slovenian documentary film producer Bostjan Virc on his award winning film HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! (Ziga Virc, 2016) that chronicles the role of Marshall Tito and the former Yugoslavia in the US-USSR space race in the 1960s.
• The very first Home Movie Day in Albania. Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide, usally in the month of October.  Home Movie Day events provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community and to learn how  to care for them for future generations.


The full program will go live online in early October 2016.
WHERE AND WHEN
AIM's inaugural workshops will be held primarily in Tirana, Albania from 17-28 October 2016. There will also be a few planned excursions to nearby towns for the workshop participants. There will be four principal sites for the workshops: AQSHF (Albanian National Film Archives), The Marubi Film and Multimedia Academy, The Albanian Ministry of Culture, and Concept/COD. All facilities are conveniently located in the Kinostudio neighborhood of Tirana. ACP is partnering with local hotels and restaurants to host all trainers and participants in comfort, and within close proximity to the training sites.
WHY: TO FURTHER PROLIFERATE UNIVERSAL NETWORKS OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING
ACP is initiating the AIM Workshops for Western Balkan audiovisual archives to begin the conversations and steps toward new, sustainable workflows that will allow professional collaborations across borders for sharing information and best practices, while also ensuring each archives continues to manage their own collections.

The Western Balkans is a culturally rich region with a precious audiovisual heritage, but much of the region’s cinema and television remains under-seen and at risk. Each country manages to maintain a minimum level of care and conservation of their collections on restrictive annual budgets, but the privatization of film and television industries post-communism has left the archives and staff struggling to care adequately for their cultural legacies.  Recently, thanks to local and international film festivals that have featured retrospective and restoration programming, archival Balkan cinema is reaching new audiences. In the digital age, there is no reason why Western Balkan archives should not be digitizing more of their holdings, and making them readily available to global audiences. No reason, of course, except lack of funding for equipment and materials. ACP believes that cooperation among the region’s archives to preserve and make accessible this precious heritage could go a long way toward demonstrating what we have learned  firsthand from working in the region for the past five years— joining together, across political, economic, and cultural boundaries—archives professionals in the Western Balkans can accomplish more to save their cultural heritage and to press on their individual governments and institutions to also work together toward this common goal.



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