Together with my good friend Philipp Dominik Keidl – who is pursuing a PhD in Film Studies at Concordia University in Montréal and with whom I studied in the University of Amsterdam’s MA Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image between 2010-2012 – I have had the great pleasure of co-editing a special issue of Concordia University’s open access film studies journal Synoptique on the institutionalization of moving image archiving programs.

Since we graduated in 2012, we have met many graduates from other programs as well as film heritage professionals with different perspectives, gained experience and acquired new theoretical insights through our research. Building on those experiences we had wanted to work on a publication together for a while in order to reflect on the field’s status today and, hopefully, give something back to it. We wanted to do this by inviting people involved in training moving image archivists to reflect on the histories and philosophies of the programs they work with while mapping future challenges, directions, hopes and dreams. On Phillip’s suggestion this idea ended up taking the shape of a special issue of Synoptique which he has been involved with in the past few years through his research at Concordia. We are very happy with how the issue has turned out, the phenomenal line-up of contributors which we managed to put together, and the hard work (and patience) of the managing editors Philippe Bédard, Giuseppe Fidotta and Patrick Brian Smith in the making of the issue. I include the table of contents below. The entire issue can be accessed here.

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Institutionalizing Moving Image Training: Analyses, Histories, Theories

Philipp Dominik Keidl & Christian Gosvig Olesen, “Introduction”

Is Film Archiving a Profession Yet? Reflections 20 years on

Ray Edmondson, “Is Film Archiving a Profession?: A Reflection 20 Years On”

Caroline Frick, “What Price Professionalism?”

Eef Masson & Giovanna Fossati, “Interdisciplinarity, Specialization, Conceptualization. Archival Education Responding to Changing Professional Demands”

Benedict Salazar Olgado, “What Do We Profess To?”

Caroline Yeager, “The Jeffrey L. Selznick School of Preservation: Changing the Field”

Peer Review Section

Alejandro Bachmann, “Multiplying Perspectives: Reflections on the Role of a Curatorial Perspective within Academic Film Studies”

Simone Venturini, “Learn then Preserve. Historical and Theoretical Notes about the First Fifteen Years of the University of Udine’s Archival Training Program (2001-2006)”

Adelheid Heftberger, “The Current Landscape of Film Archiving and How Study Programs can Contribute”

Forum Section: Programs, Philosophies

Thomas Elsaesser, “A Look Back: The Professional Master’s Programme in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image and How It Came to Amsterdam”

Sonia Campanini, Vinzenz Hediger & Ines Bayer, “Minding the Materiality of Film: The Frankfurt Master’s Program ‘Film Culture: Archiving, Programming, Presentation'”

Ulrich Ruedel & Martin Koerber, “The Materiality of Heritage: Moving Image Preservation Training at HTW Berlin”

Oliver Hanley, “Upholding Tradition: The Master’s Program in Film Heritage at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF”

Juana Suárez & Pamela Vízner, “Education Through International Collaboration: The Audiovisual Preservation Exchange (APEX) Program”

Rossella Catanese, “Learning From the Keepers: Archival Training in Italian Cinematheques”

Reviews Section

Giuseppe Fidotta, “Thomas Elsaesser, Film History as Media Archaeology”

Andrée Lafontaine, “Iwan Morgan and Philip John Davies, Hollywood and the Great Depression”