Towards a national archive of audio-visual material

Abstract

Malta is one of the last European countries without a National Film and Sound Archive. This study highlights the immediate need for Malta to establish one such statutory archive, how its structure can be formulated and the support base of how to make it functional. The major repositories of relevant material are identified, important finds in the respective genres are discussed and an emphasis is laid on the importance of continuous commitment and vigilance. The study also stresses that it is an archive, rather than an institute should be called for. Samples of two filmographies and two discographies are also presented. To this date there is no authoritative keeper of such records in Malta. When playwright Francis Ebejer and vocalist Sammy Bartolo, of Il-bidwi ta' Wied il-Ghasel fame, recently passed away, there was no constituted body in the country that could issue a comprehensive list of their artistic works. Posthumous articles or exhibitions omitted a number of their works. Fieldwork comprises a series of primary sources, namely interviews conducted with a wide spectrum of people related, in various ways, to these media. The study includes a number of illustrations, some as yet unpublished, and two relevant interviews with the Irish Film Archive and the Irish Traditional Music Archive, conducted in persona in Dublin in August 1999.