This workshop seeks to crowdsource ideas from archives that have historically worked in a context of scarcity and lack of funding on how they have handled/are handling to establish green practices. The “precarity pride” that is often emphasized by colleagues who succeed in managing collections, getting results, and giving access against every financial odd is often taken for granted and hardly revised to the light of sustainable green practices. Precarity is a concept that demands more politicization in archives because it also leads to job insecurity and stability that is detrimental to workers. Hence, the workshop does not aim to undermine the responsibility we have as archivists/activists for funding, fair hiring practices, and job-related issues. Yet, we look at how precarity is a source of fluid spaces of innovation. In this way, we rethink how the constant concern with saving, repurposing, repairing, searching for DIY solutions, and many other practices that are characteristic of institutions in countries with poor economies, counter archives, and minor archives can be examined in the light of contemporary ecological practices and can make many contributions in our attempts to foster green archives.

Juana Suárez: Director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University. She is a Latin American Cinema scholar and a media preservation specialist. Author of Cinembargo Colombia: Critical Essays on Colombian Cinema (Spanish 2009, English translation 2012), and Sites of Contention: Cultural Production and the Discourse of Violence in Colombia; co-editor of Humor in Latin American Cinema (2015); translator to Spanish of A Comparative History of Latin American Cinema by Paul A. Schroeder-Rodríguez (2020). She is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Moving Images Archives, Cultural History and The Digital Turn in Latin America.

Film newsreel collections kept by institutions responsible for the protection of the audio-visual heritage are frequently the most significant and outstanding documents of the archives of these institutions due to their great historical, political and cultural value, although at the same time they also present one of the most complex challenges in terms of cataloguing, distribution and use, primarily if we are talking about sensitive material which may result in actions violating human rights.

The Señal Memoria archive currently holds a remarkable film newsreel collection. Among the film newsreels of particular importance is Noticiero de las 7 (N7), an extremely important Colombian newsreel, which was regularly broadcast every night at 7 pm from Monday to Friday between 1984 and 2001.

The significance of this film newsreel lies in its innovative format and content: it is a priceless heritage for the reconstruction of Colombia’s historical memory.

These documents contain several of the most significant events in the country’s history, for example, the occupation of the Palace of Justice, the Armero tragedy, the expansion of the Medellín and Cali drug cartels and their leaders, among them Pablo Escobar and Rodríguez Orejuela, the evolution of the Colombian armed conflict, the various efforts at peace talks, the demobilization of M-19, among others.

Beginning with a case study of this newsreel containing approximately 7000 hours of audio-visual material, mainly original camera footage in Betacam and Umatic format, in the course of the presentation I cover the work done so far during cataloguing, the challenges arising during the processing and distribution process, which concerns the production of metadata, historical analysis, terminological research, the ethical dimensions of the use and publication of sensitive information in public ownership, which can be used in court proceedings as testimony, proof and evidential material.

Carol Sabbadini is a restorer and conservator of the artistic and cultural heritage, and an artist. She has an MA in History of Art and Visual Arts from the Bologna University (Italy), and is specialized in management of audio-visual heritage. She was awarded a master’s degree in the Language of Contemporary Image (photography, transdisciplinary practice, video art) at Fondazione Fotografia Modena (Italy).  Advisor in charge of the area of Management of Audiovisual and Sound Collections of Señal Memoria of RTVC Public Media System of Colombia. From 2016 to 2020, she was advisor on the use plan and the management model of the New Cinematheque of Bogotá and since its inauguration coordinator of the Creation and Experimentation area.