De-center: Towards a Future of Open and Locally Sourced Preservation Technology
De-center: Towards a Future of Open and Locally Sourced Preservation Technology
Lisabona Rahman – International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)
As the use of analog film handling technology decreases, the archive institutions and initiatives around the world are striving to source the essential working tools. Many of them turned to search for possibilities for reusing available equipment; however, in many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, this often means that equipment has to be sourced from very far away. This entails a lot of cost and the sustainability of equipment maintenance is at stake. As a community of film archiving practitioners, FIAF is interested in exploring the possibilities of reverse engineering essential film handling technology with the community of engineers. In the future, FIAF hopes to be able to create an open-source pool of knowledge providing the technical design of the essential tools, aiming to encourage local production and sustainable maintenance. Guided by one of the key contributors in FIAF’s Technical Commission, Tiago Ganhāo, the FIAF community hopes to use the opportunity of this seminar to take the first steps towards our collaborative goal.
Lisabona Rahman
Lisabona Rahman creates workshops, screenings and performative lectures with archival films. She has intersecting interests on cinema history, coloniality, transnational networks and women's work. Since April 2025, she is the Training and Outreach Coordinator of the Federation of International Film Archives (FIAF). Lisabona also takes part in the circulation of knowledge among feminists through Kelas Liarsip virtual study group and the translocal School of Women’s Thought.