The Association of Moving Image Archivists has launched an online campaign called We Are AMIA with the goal of raising awareness in the industry about the critical need to preserve our motion picture heritage.
“Never before has there been more of a need for the expertise that Association of Moving Image Archivists members can give,” said AMIA president Andrea Kalas. “The 35mm film format as a force for creativity and preservation has been much in the news; digitally born creativity is prevalent in movies, games, websites, art and education and is changing the way we entertain ourselves, the way we play, the way we learn – and the way we preserve.”
For 25 years, AMIA has been an open forum where solutions to the longevity and availability of all moving images is debated and revolutionized.
“As we take that debate from our annual conference and our own meetings to conferences at NAB and SMPTE, we are helping the industry make sure that the work of directors, cinematographers, sound designers, and visual effects artists are preserved into the future,” Kalas said. “And there are going to be more technological advances, not less, as our community continues to invent and expand.”
“AMIA is everyone. Our members come from everywhere – studios, small archives, giant archives, broadcasters, technology innovators, universities, filmmakers and technology companies – and they are in the trenches on these issues,” she said. “I often hear that the digital future looks dark – that it will be difficult or impossible to preserve films digitally. And I always say – maybe you should hire a moving image archivist – your outlook will improve.”
“Our thinking behind this was to come up with a dynamic, new way to really describe AMIA,” she concluded. “We wanted to highlight the work we do and the collections we care for. We hope this series of GIF-based images illustrate the efforts of this community as well as help publicize events, talks, and initiatives in all the important fields that contribute to preserving our culture, our heritage.”