A pilot project for the indexing and cataloguing of amateur films as sources for contemporary rural history.
A project of the Research Network for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies (first) managed by the Institute of Rural History.
Funding
Amt der NÖ Landesregierung, Abteilung Kunst und Kultur
Duration
November 2018 – October 2019
Principal Investigator
Ulrich Schwarz-Gräber
Researchers
Almut Hufnagl (Center for Migration Research)
Florian Ribisch (Institute for Jewish History in Austria)
Project Coordinator
Johanna Zechner
In Cooperation with
Short Description
In 2013, the Federal Province of Lower Austria and the Filmarchiv Austria launched a call for contributions to a new collection of small-gauge films. In the following years, more than 63,000 film rolls were collected. They were digitized and archived by the Filmarchiv Austria. This project aims at developing an indexing system in order to make this vast amount of material accessible for future research projects.
In our pilot study, a conceptual framework for content indexing will be developed and a limited part of the films will be catalogued accordingly. At the same time, small case studies explore potentials of the source material for historical research on rural areas: from serial images of banquets to representations of the Cold War era from a Lower Austrian perspective and agricultural techniques in moving pictures.
Further information about the collection:
https://www.filmarchiv.at/sammlung/film/amateurfilme/