On 6 October 2020, SEAPAVAA endorsed the declaration by the Board of the Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) about the situation of the Cinemateca Brasileira to call on all relevant stakeholders, funding, policy and government agencies to urgently resolve the problem to protect the priceless cultural treasures in the Cinemateca Brasileira after Cinemateca Brasileira was forced to cease all activities in September 2020, leaving no staff to care for the collections or the facilities that house them.
Unfortunately, on Thursday, 29 July 2021, Cinemateca Brasileira’s warehouse in São Paulo caught fire. This 6,500 square meter warehouse housed more than 250,000 rolls of film and film-related materials. The full extent of damage has not yet been reported. This disaster once again demonstrates the failure of the Brazilian government policy to properly care for its national audiovisual heritage.
As a member of the international audiovisual archiving community, SEAPAVAA shares the communal deep concern of this uncertain situation in Brazil. We stand together with the CCAAA in requesting the Brazilian government and the other authorities responsible for preserving national heritage to urgently support the Cinemateca Brasileira to enable it to resume its indispensable function as soon as possible.
You can access the statement of the workers of Cinematica Brasileira through this link.