The Albanian Cinema Project (ACP) to preserve the Albanian films

Building on our successful foundation and proven track record in Albania, ACP is launching regional training workshops in the Western Balkans for archives professionals. These archivists are working against the odds to preserve an endangered cinematic heritage that has been far too little seen beyond the region’s borders. ACP is organizing the Archives in Motion (AIM) Workshops in conjunction with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), George Eastman Museum (GEM), AV Geeks, AV Preservation, the San Francisco Media Archive (SFMA), the US Library of Congress (LOC), and the Albanian Ministry of Culture.

ACP will organize and host  a 2-week intensive preservation institute  at the Albanian National Film Archives (AQSHF) in Tirana, Albania from October 17-28, 2016. This will be the first in a series of ongoing workshops in the region.

AIM will be organized under the auspices of ACP and their partners in Albania, in the Western Balkan Region, and within the FIAF Outreach and Training Committee. AIM is a capacity building project to promote and carry out film and video preservation and digitization and to facilitate access to the archival and contemporary cinema of the Western Balkans in situ.

AIM is designed to bring equipment and professional expertise in film and video preservation and digitization to countries with a rich audiovisual heritage, but where, due to decades of infrastructural challenges, access to the tools for ongoing preservation and restoration have been limited. We are committed to fostering collaboration and increasing preservation initiatives by bringing the latest technologies to the region, along with the necessary training for the archives and archivists, so they can begin to provide digital access to their own materials. ACP will provide oversight and maintenance as we work with all participating archives to build a digital repository for the archives to share information about their important collections online, globally. **All hardware, including the scanner, will remain the property of ACP.  Security procedures will be put in place to  provide ongoing maintenance and upgrades to the equipment with our partners at AV Geeks, and the US Embassy in Tirana, where the equipment will be housed.

Modeled on the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Summer Schools and the Film Foundation’s Film Preservation and Restoration Workshops, and building on the foundational work that ACP’s international board of film preservation experts has advanced in the region since 2012, AIM invites the participation of the following regional archives for an advanced workshop to be held at the Albanian National Film Archives (AQSHF) in Tirana:

 Albania: AQSHF and the Albanian Television Archives
 Bosnia and Herzegovina: National Film Archive of Bosnia-Herzegovina, BHRT, RTRS, Cinematheque of Republika Srpska
 Croatia: Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), Cinematheque of Croatia, HRT
 FYR Macedonia: Cinematheque of Macedonia, Radio-television of the FYROM (MKRTV)
 Kosovo: Radio-television of Kosovo (RTK)
 Montenegro: Cinematheque of Montenegro, Radio-television of Montenegro (RTCG)
 Serbia: Yugoslav cinematheque of Belgrade, Radio-television of Serbia (RTS)
 Slovenia: Slovenian Cinematheque
 Slovene Film Archives ​  

AIM will conduct advanced courses with a focus on practical training in current audiovisual preservation and restoration techniques and archival practices conducted by leading archivists and restorers from preeminent international institutions: the Magyar Filmlabor (Hungarian Film Lab), A/V Geeks (North Carolina, USA), AV Preservation (Switzerland), The George Eastman Museum (GEM, Rochester, NY, USA), the Netherlands Filmmuseum, The British Film Institute and L’immagine Ritrovata (Bologna, Italy) and the US Library of Congress Audiovisual Conservation Center (Culpeper, VA, USA).

The full program will be online in October 2016