FIAF Executive Committee Statement
This is a Statement issued on 7 February 2017 by the FIAF Executive Committee about the executive order on immigration signed on 27 January 2017 by the President of the United States.
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The 73rd Congress of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) is due to take place in Los Angeles from 28 April to 3 May 2017. One of the Federation’s main aims since its foundation in 1938 has been to bring together film archives from all around the world, and to develop co-operation between these archives (Article 1 of the FIAF Statutes and Rules).
The annual FIAF Congress in particular has always been a key platform for professionals of all 162 affiliated archives in 74 countries to share their experiences, exchange information, and discuss collaborative projects with their fellow colleagues. Moreover, one of the highpoints of the Congress week is the meeting of the General Assembly, which the FIAF Statutes and Rules make a duty for representatives of all FIAF affiliates to attend (Rule 23).
On 27 January 2017, the President of the United States issued an executive order barring citizens from certain countries from entering the U.S. This will have a considerable impact not only on FIAF-affiliated archives based in those countries, but also on citizens of those countries working in FIAF archives elsewhere, who will be prevented from attending the Congress, and thus from sharing and exchanging experiences and information with their colleagues and performing their duty of attending the General Assembly. The FIAF Executive Committee therefore urges the U.S. administration to cancel this executive order, which goes against the values of inclusion and solidarity at the heart of our global community of film archives for the last 79 years, and threatens to seriously disrupt the forthcoming FIAF Congress, as quickly as possible.
The FIAF Executive Committee would also like to express its clear and unequivocal support to all its colleagues who might be affected by the current executive order, and to assure them that everything will be done by the FIAF Executive Committee, in collaboration with the FIAF Secretariat, and the Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film & Television Archive – the two institutions hosting the Congress – to help enable them to take part in the debates of the 73rd FIAF Congress, either physically or, should that prove impossible, in any other possible way.
The President of FIAF will read a statement reaffirming FIAF’s values and its full support to all colleagues in our global community, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political views, or religious convictions, at the start of the General Assembly in Los Angeles on 2 May 2017.
The FIAF Executive Committee
7 February 2017
