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media history from S. America |
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Hope for a historical collection of popular video in Brazil by Iracema Nascimento The collection of 500-titles belonging to the Brazilian Popular Video Association (ABVP, in Portuguese) is being rescued from oblivion and death. When the Association was closed down in 2002, its archive – that tells the history of social and popular movements in Brazil in the 1980s and 1990s through video – was stored in bad conditions. Since October 22nd, however, this thesaurus has been given a new fate. A group of young people have been putting their hands on the tapes, facing dust and mould, whilst at the same time revealing a precious history of the use of video as a toll of political resistance to mainstream media. The initiative is a partnership of the São Paulo-based NGO Ação Educativa (Educative Action – www.acaoeducativa.org) and the Collective of Ex-Members of ABVP, a group of activists that took active part in ABVP and were committed to the future of its archive when the Association was closed down. As part of the project Video, Culture and Work, developed by Ação Educativa, a group of young people is participating in workshops to identify the state of each master tape and of each copy. Many of them are already sadly damaged. In doing this, they come across directors, languages, characters and themes that made up what is called "popular video". When these workshops are finished, on Nov 26th, it will be possible for the Collective of Ex-Members of ABVP to look for partnerships and funds that will allow the complete recovery and digitalisation of this rare archive. More on ABVP The Brazilian Popular Video Association was created in 1984 aiming to encourage the use of video by popular and social movements. Its activities were based on three strands: distribution, training and information. Throughout two decades, the Association became a locus of debate and reflection on alternative video production, consolidating itself as one of the most important actors in the movement for democratisation of media in Brazil and in Latin America. During this period, ABVP gathered an archive of about 500 videos produced by independent directors, trade unions, NGOs and small social groups from all over the country, with a variety of themes such as land reform, sexuality, health, genre, feminism, ethnic, environment and so on. In 2002, after surviving a serious political and financial crisis for more than five years, the Association was closed down. The Collective of Ex-Members remained committed to keeping the archive alive, based on the principle of public access. Anyone interested in knowing more about it or in taking part in this process is more than welcome to contact ABVP at: coletivoabvp@yahoo.com.br. --- Iracema Nascimento is a journalist based in Sao Paolo, master in Communication Studies, was president of ABVP from 1997 to 2002. She lived in London for 18 months till July 2005, and can be contacted via email: iranasci@yahoo.com |