Page 4 - RD_March_2013.pdf

Australian Films Release into DVD by NFSA

What is now the situation for people who want to obtain Australian films from the
National Film and Sound Archive? There have been some hopeful developments in the
last year. The emphasis has changed from selling, as in the days of VHS, to lending. A
lot of DVDs are now available for borrowing. Also borrowable are films in 35mm,
16mm, and VHS. In all cases, subject to registration as a borrowing entity and with
various conditions which need to be studied.
The take-home message is that putting in your energy and attention will yield you
access to a lot of interesting Australian films. How you use them will vary with the
conditions of loan, but they are there for you.

Outright Purchase

A handful of DVDs released by the
Archive itself like THE
SENTIMENTAL BLOKE, or
facilitated from Archive resources
like JEDDA, are sold at and on-line
from the Archive Shop. So are a lot
of commercial DVD and BluRay
releases, many mastered from the
75 restorations made by NFSA in
the Kodak-Atlab projects. Of the
326 Shop offerings, a considerable
and creditable number are
Australian, others are not. Some
are sold in any retail DVD outlet.
None are licensed beyond home use. All are listed at http://shop.nfsa.gov.au/
Films and compilations issued in VHS format in the 1990s-2005 now sell on eBay at
around $20, with of course no legal provision for being copied. Often, these VHS were
not explicitly limited to home use. They have not been re-mastered under present
NFSA policy for practical and commercial reasons.
Borrowing from Canberra

The main access for Australian films from the Archive is now through borrowing. Three
staff cover the total work of lending in 35mm, 16mm, DVD, VHS and minor other
formats. From the regular Archive collection, anything catalogued as ‘Access’ can be
viewed, usually in VHS, on site in Canberra or in the state libraries acting as NFSA
agents, such as the Mediatheque at ACMI in Melbourne. This form of access is for