Project 2010/239. URUGUAY
Preventive conservation and archival description of cinema films from the “Instituto Cinematográfico” Fund of the General Archive of the University of the Republic
The General Archive of the University of the Republic (AGU) was founded in 2002 on the basis of the work of the Document Selection Committee and is an administrative, as well as academic, support unit whose main objectives are to collect, conserve, organise and provide university documentation.
This project, funded by the Iberarchivos programme, is the 2nd phase of the plan for the conservation and documentary description of films and photographs that were produced and acquired by the former Film Institute of the University of the Republic from the Technical and Audiovisual Media Department between 1950 and 1990. The collection is in the custody of the University’s General Archive.
The main objective was to make available to the general and specialised public a collection of 700 films and 10,000 photographic negatives and positives, which are important testimonies linked to different themes related to human rights within the framework of Uruguay’s recent history and therefore an invaluable source for analysing the validity, violation and demands relating to human rights in the second half of the 20th century in Uruguay.
The project consisted of carrying out preventive conservation tasks, archival description and format transfer of the documentation, in order to stabilise and condition the original pieces, so that the images could be made available to the public.
The conservation tasks included changing the guard, cleaning, inspecting, diagnosing and measuring the acidity with reactive strips of a total of 681 films. The audiovisual documents showed significant physicochemical instability, so suitable containers were designed for conservation.
The material was also digitised and the originals subsequently stored in a temperature- and humidity-controlled chamber, thus avoiding manipulation in the future.
Consult the Census Guide to Archives in Spain and Ibero-America: Census Guide
You can consult the project’s technical report and the rest of the information here:
Project 2010/239. URUGUAY
Preventive conservation and archival description of cinema films from the “Instituto Cinematográfico” Fund of the General Archive of the University of the Republic
Madres y Familiares de Uruguayos Detenidos-Desaparecidos – FEDEFAM – Uruguay, was born in 1985 from the union of three groups of relatives of the disappeared: Asociación de Familiares Uruguayos Desaparecidos (AFUDE), founded by exiles in Europe; Familiares de Uruguayos Desaparecidos en Argentina, which had been working since 1977; and Familiares de Desaparecidos en Uruguay, which had been doing so since 1982.
The aim of the project was to ensure the preservation and availability to interested parties of the documentary sub-fund of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Detainees (except for those documents reserved for legal reasons), a sub-fund that forms part of the Archive of the Enforced Disappearance of Persons.
After an initial diagnosis of the physical conditions, installation, risk factors and document conservation, the documents were studied and a classification chart was created, which can be consulted in the project report.
Once the information had been entered into the database, an inventory was made, which can also be consulted in the report.
To find out more about FEDEFAM-Uruguay, visit its website: Web
You can consult the project’s technical report and the rest of the information here: