Theme: Film/Video Archiving in the Tropics
Manila, Philippines
Philippines’ Vice President Joseph Estrada formally opened the first conference of the AV archiving institutions in the southeast Asia-Pacific region on February 19 in Pasig City in Metro Manila, held in conjunction with the National Film and Video Archiving Week.
The conference theme was “Film/Video Archiving in the Tropics” and the program included a two-day symposia on preservation, collection management, and strategic issues. About 120 people attended the symposia.
The conference served as the inaugural general assembly of SEAPAVAA. Forty participants representing twenty founding archives from nine countries adopted a constitution, elected an Executive Council, and signed the documents to establish SEAPAVAA as a legal entity. Elected officers were Ray Edmondson as President; Belina Capul as Secretary-General; and Tuenjai Sinthuvnik as Treasurer.
An initial working program for the association was also drafted together with the establishment of its three committees: Technical, Collections, and Training Committees. The first issue of the SEAPAVAA newsletter has also been distributed.