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2016 Meeting of the Nordic Film Archives

The Nordic Film Archives and Cinematheques had their annual meeting in Iceland with 26 participants from Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland on 14 and 15 September. The meeting was held in Hafnarfjörður, the hometown of the National Film Archive of Iceland (Kvikmyndasafn Íslands) and one of the country's biggest towns, 10 km south of the capital town Reykjavík. 

Someone wrote in the host’s guestbook at the end of the meeting that this was an experience she will never forget and that the climax of it was the film screening in the church in connection with the 110th anniversary of regular film screenings in Iceland. 
This makes the host believe that the meeting was successful at least to a certain extent. And that is the feeling the photos taken by various participants seem to communicate. Check those taken by Mikko Kuutti, Thomas C. Christensen, and Kvikmyndasafn Íslands.

The first day started with the news reports from the institutions. Another topic on the agenda dealt with the question about the service factor in relation to the preservation and registration work of the archives which should take the priority but can be challenged in time.

In the afternoon of the first meeting day, the Mayor of the host town Hafnarfjörður, gave a reception in the 71 years old municipal cinema Bæjarbíó (the former cinemateque of the Kvikmyndasafn). In the evening the participants went to a church and saw the two oldest short films from the very beginning of regular cinema operation in Iceland which started 2nd of Nov in 1906 and listened to some film historic facts related to this upcoming anniversary. The church organist played life on a barock organ under the screenings of the films.

On the second day the Cultural minister of Iceland, Mr. Illugi Gunnarsson, payed us visit. In his speech he gave among other things this important statement: "We know that there is still much work to be done in this field here in Iceland and that to carry it out the National Film Archive needs more staff and funding for new and up to date equipment. It is my hope that we may be taking the next significant steps in this direction in the coming state budget for 2017, and that we may see the Film Archive play an increasingly significant role in the field of contemporary culture in Iceland in the future."

The next meeting will be held in Finland in the autumn of 2017.

Erlendur Sveinsson