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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Greece Votes to Preserve Its Audiovisual Heritage

The Greek Parliament has voted on a new legislation that institutionalized the legal obligation to deposit films and the establishment of a National Film Heritage Preservation Organization that will be managed by the Greek Film Archive. Since 1982, the Council of Europe Convention on audiovisual heritage provided for the mandatory deposit of a copy of any type of audiovisual material for EU member-states. This obligation includes the deposit of a copy in a formally specified file and the deposited material’s necessary preservation and protection. However, after the abolition of the Greek National Audiovisual Archive, there was no organization responsible for the preservation of film, thus irreparably exposing Greece on a European and international level. The new legislation aims to fill the existing gap, entrusting this service to the Greek Film Archive, fully in line with what is provided by the European Union and the Council of Europe in regards to each country’s audiovisual heritage. To cover the collection, cataloging, archiving, preservation, conservation, restoration, recovery, digitization and availability costs, the organization will receive an annual grant from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. The Greek Film Archive currently hosts a total of 10,000 Greek and foreign films and it is a permanent member of the International Federation of Film Archives, a founding member of the Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques and the only film heritage protection foundation in Greece .


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com