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Table of Contents
Editorial
Welcome to the 2nd issue of the European Film Gateway newsletter! Its main purpose is to provide up-to-date information on the project outcomes and to report about activities and events which concern the film archival community as well as the wider group of Europeana projects to which EFG belongs.
Copyright, for example, is a central issue for EFG and all those projects, whishing to make their cultural heritage available online, so we will regularly inform on relevant themes surrounding copyright. In this issue we give a brief overview of the Google Book Settlement and its impacts.
In each newsletter issue, one or two EFG partners present a highlight from their archives: an exceptional collection, a digitisation or restoration project, or any other important activity for saving and promoting European film heritage. This time our Swiss and Danish partners, the Lichtspiel – Kinemathek Bern and Det Danske Filminstitut introduce films from their collections.
The EFG newsletter is published biannually during the three-year EFG project duration. The 3rd issue will be out in February 2010. We hope you enjoy reading! |
About EFG
One year after the official start of the EFG project in September 2008, the groundwork is laid for a successful establishment of the EFG web portal, which will eventually give access to some 700.000 digitised texts, images and films kept in European film archives. A major task of the first year’s work was the building of the EFG database structure, which will allow collecting and harmonising heterogeneous data from the contributing archives and will form the backbone of the EFG web portal to be launched in summer 2010.
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The Europeana Group currently comprises eleven different projects that are all working towards the creation of the fully operational Europeana.eu by 2010 with links to over 10 million digital objects. Several new projects have been launched in the past months: EuropeanaConnect, EuropeanaTravel and BHL-Europe all started in May, JUDAICA in July and EUscreen is to kick-off in October 2009. The core project Europeana v1.0, which started as successor Thematic Network to EDLnet in February, has now updated the Europeana Semantic Elements and issued the XML Schema, which are available as downloads on the Europeana v1.0 website. From 14-15 September the Europeana Plenary 2009 “Creation, Collaboration & Copyright” takes place in The Hague/Netherlands.
Read more... |
Framework Agreement Between ACE and FIAPF for Voluntary Deposit of Films
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A breakthrough has been reached in the longstanding negotiations between ACE (Association des Cinémathèques Européennes) and FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Film) on a framework agreement for voluntary deposit. Both organisations approved the document at their General Assemblies in May and July 2009.
Read more... |
Google Book Settlement Opt Out Deadline Ends
A few days before the deadline for authors and publishers to opt out of the Google Book Settlement ends on 4 September 2009, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo joined the newly formed Open Book Alliance, to counter the proposed settlement in its current form. The settlement still has to be approved by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York – the Final Fairness Hearing is scheduled for 7 October 2009.
Read more... |
Treasures from the Archives
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Lichtspiel – Kinemathek Bern
Restoration of “Im Silberlicht der Blüemlisalp”
In 1935 Friedrich Alwin Hutzli, a priest from Reichenbach, Switzerland, produced a unique documentary film about the daily life, local customs and the beauty of nature and mountains in the Kiental Valley in the Bernese Oberland on behalf of the local tourist office. The Lichtspiel – Kinemathek Bern who holds the only existent positive copy of “Im Silberlicht der Blüemlisalp” (“In the radiant light of the mountain ‘Blüemlisalp’”) has now been able to restore and copy this 16mm silent film gem with the financial support from the canton Berne.
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Det Danske Filminstitut
Peter Elfelt: Danish Royal Court Photographer and Film Pioneer
The Danish Film Institute holds a significant collection of early motion pictures by Denmark’s first filmmaker Peter Elfelt (1866-1931). Elfelt shot the first moving images in Denmark in the winter of 1896/97, a 30-second sequence called “Kørsel med Grønlandske Hunde” (“Driving with Greenland Dogs”). Being the official photographer of the Danish royal court, his over 200 films reflect the royalty of the time, society, art and events. Peter Elfelt is also credited as making the first Danish fiction film, “Henrettelsen” (“The Execution”) in 1903. Read more... |
In Brief
By May 11th 2009, EFG partner Istituto Luce, Europe's oldest public film company founded in 1924, has undergone a merger by incorporation into Cinecittà Holding (Rome), giving thus birth to the public company Cinecittà Luce S.p.A.
The Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankurt am Main, administered by the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF e.V., will close its doors at the end of 2009 due to full-scale reconstructions. With only the historic facades remaining unchanged, the new Filmmuseum is expected to reopen in April 2011 with more exhibition space, a modernised cinema and an entirely new permanent exhibition.
Now available in the outcomes section on the EFG website is the essay “On the History and Function of Film Archives” by Thomas Ballhausen, researcher at the Filmarchiv Austria. |
Upcoming Events
14-15 September: Europeana Plenary 2009 “Creation, Collaboration & Copyright", The Hague, Netherlands
http://version1.europeana.eu/web/guest/plenary
20-25 September: IASA 2009 Annual Conference, “Towards a New Kind of Archives? The Digital Philosophy of Audiovisual Archives”, Athens, Greece
www.iasa2009.com
1-2 October: 6th Communia Workshop – Memory Institutions and Public Domain, “Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content and Data”, Barcelona, Spain
www.communia-project.eu
4-7 October: Joint BAAC & LCSA Annual Conference, “Aggregation and Management of Audiovisual Content in the Digital Space”, Vilnius, Lithuania
www.baacouncil.org
8 October: EFG Plenary Board, Vilnius, Lithuania
18-20 November: Archimages09, "Recherche et Archives”, Paris, France
www.inp.fr |
Contact
EFG - The European Film Gateway
c/o Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF e.V.
Schaumainkai 41, D 60596 Frankfurt
T: +49 69 961220-700
F: +49 69 961220-999
efg@deutsches-filminstitut.de
http://www.efgproject.eu/ |
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Co-funded by the Community programme eContentplus
EFG is solely responsible for the content of this newsletter, which does not represent the opinion of the Community. The Community is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained in this newsletter.
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