ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi

Aloha Everyone!

I will be back in Hawaii from July 26 – Aug. 5 to continue my research and meeting with people. The highlight of the trip will undoubtedly be the “Update Meeting” scheduled for August 3 at the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge Conference Room, 201 Floor located at 2645 Dole Street

For those of you who will be attending please take the time to go to the Natsunoya Tea House website. Please email me at feluccafilms@gmail.com to let me know if you would like the Veggie or the Tea House Special bento selection.

MEETING AGENDA
The tentative agenda for the day is the following (it may change as we get closer to the date):

Noon – people arrive and box lunches are provided from Natsunoya

12:30 pm – call meeting to order (lunch continues)

Welcome and Introduction

Presentation by David Rowntree

• General overview of the need for preservation of media materials
• Review of the consultant’s role and summary of the first visit
• Review preliminary findings from the survey
• Description of the functions and activities of a moving image archive (examples from Washington University Film & Media Archive)
• Look at unique challenges of media archives and issues to be addressed
• (technology, cataloging, preservation, copyrights, access, digitization)
• Vision and potential of the Henry K. Giugni Archive
• Wrap Up… Next steps (phase 2, Final Report, CLIR grant)

2:00pm –  Open for questions and discussions

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again.

Mahalo

David

The last general survey of the audiovisual holdings in Hawai`i was conducted 20 years ago.

“The Hawaii Moving Image Preservation Project Report” was written by Ruth Tamura in 1989-1991. The report consisted of 90-pages and 43 appendices totaling approximately 400 pages. However, the report focused only on the holdings within Hawaiian State institutions and departments and more specifically on film pre-dating 1960.

This limited survey of Hawaiian cultural institutions, in addition to the monumental paradigm shift brought about by digital technologies justifies the need for a new survey. Rapid technological advances, combined with the almost equally rapid obsolescence of moving image playback equipment, has changed the types of audiovisual materials being created, as well as the priorities for preservation.

As I mentioned in my last post, the genesis of this survey has come from my initial research and meetings for the HKG Archive. Knowing that it would be impossible to visit and talk with every archive, library, independent filmmaker, and cultural organization that held moving image materials I have developed a short questionnaire to reach a larger number of people.

The purpose of the survey is threefold:

1. Obtain some basic information about the state of moving image collections throughout Hawai`i (with a particular emphasis on Hawaiian materials) from a variety of public and private organizations, institutions, and individuals.
2. Identify the level of digitization efforts and initiatives that currently exist in Hawai`i.
3. Collect opinions about the various challenges organizations face in preserving and making accessible their collections.

I am optimistic that the information gathered in the survey will provide valuable information and help to understand the scope of the challenges in Hawai’i as well as provide accurate figures to develop a sustainable long-term preservation plan for these valuable materials.

The survey should take approximate 20-30 minutes to complete. Please take the time to fill in the survey as accurately as you can. If you have any questions about the survey please contact me at feluccafilms@gmail.com . Or leave questions in the comments section of the blog.

Click Here to take survey

I will publish the results of the survey on this blog. Thanks for your help!

It’s been just over two weeks since I’ve returned from the first of two visits to Hawai`i. Looking back I can confidently say it was an incredibly productive, insightful, and enjoyable trip.

I had a full schedule of meetings with people over the course of two and a half weeks and visited three islands in the process. I am very grateful to Heather Giugni for helping with initial introductions and to everyone who I met for being so generous with both their time and knowledge. The list of the people and places I visited represents a small proportion of groups I would like to reach.

Initially, I had planned to meet and talk to people as part of my background research. I wanted to get an understanding of the kinds of audiovisual materials that existed in Hawai`i, an idea of the amounts, if they were being preserved, digitized, and if they were accessible. It became clear that many people were interested in seeing the results of my interviews and wanted to know themselves exactly the status of Hawaii’s moving image heritage. Therefore, I felt that it would be a good idea to expand my initial project and try to conduct a larger more comprehensive survey. This is the subject of my next posting.

While I expected that most people would agree there was a growing need to address preservation of old media formats, I was surprised at the level of excitement and commitment from the people I spoke with. In general, there was a cautious optimism as many voiced a “wait and see approach.” A natural reaction given that the Archive does not yet exist.

Nonetheless, there was universal agreement that the creation of the HKG Archive would be a positive stp forward.