World Day for Audiovisual Heritage: NYU Unveils Lost Films Of The Communist Party USA

New York City, October 18 — The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has established October 27, 2007 as the first-annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. To commemorate this event, New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program and NYU Libraries are proud to present a showcase of rare 16 mm films from the Communist Party USA Collection.

The screening will be the first public glimpse into a landmark collection donated by the Communist Party USA to the University’s Tamiment Library & Wagner Labor Archives in 2006. The eight short films selected for this program will raise eyebrows and challenge stereotypes by offering fresh perspectives on everyday life in the Communist world.

What does it take to be a teenage Cosmonaut? How did camerawork convey meaning in propaganda films of South Vietnam? What music was popular on the far side of the Berlin Wall? What kind of future did the Communists foresee for an independent Angola?

Find the answers in

TEENAGE COSMONAUTS (USSR, 1980);

GOING UP THE LINE (South Vietnam, c. 1969);

ANGELA DAVIS REPORT (East Germany, 1972);

WHAT THE WAGE PACKET DOES NOT SHOW (East Germany, 1978);

WE NEVER TIRE OF SPEAKING ABOUT MOTHER (USSR, 1975);

MOSCOW OLYMPICS (USSR, 1980);

THE VOICE OF FREE ANGOLA (USSR, c. 1976);

and NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION (China, 1959).

With this screening, NYU Libraries and the MIAP Program hope to raise local awareness about the significance of moving image collections to cultural history and collective memory. The program will also highlight challenges faced by today’s moving image archivists, from conserving obsolete formats and prolonging the life of decaying materials, to addressing the ethics of preservation for works historically underrepresented by governments and media conglomerates.

UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is hosted by New York University on October 27, 2007 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM at the Languages and Literature Building, 19 University Place, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public. For additional information on the event, contact:

Sarah Ziebell
New York University

(212) 998-2692

About UNESCO — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization was established as a specialized agency of the UN in 1945. UNESCO works to promote international collaboration through education, science and culture, and to promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.

About NYU’s Moving Image Archiving And Preservation (MIAP)Program — MIAP is a two-year M.A. program that trains future professionals to manage preservation-level collections of film, video, new media, and other types of digital works, providing an international, comprehensive education in the theories, methods, and practices of moving image archiving and preservation.