Preserving Atlantic Canada’s film heritage
A new lab at the Nova Scotia Archives aims to give artists, researchers and film lovers better access to Atlantic Canada's film heritage.
The Atlantic Media Preservation Laboratory is a partnership between the archives and the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-operative and will help ensure film from earlier eras is preserved and protected.
"Archival films have the power to change the world by helping us understand and bring awareness to important issues, events and people of the past,” said Culture and Heritage Minister Pat Dunn in a news release.
"This new specialized film lab is the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada and will help ensure our stories continue to be told."
The lab will preserve the work of artists like film pioneer Margaret Perry who is also the subject of the new online exhibit Margaret
Perry: A Life in Film.
"Margaret Perry is one of the most influential, yet unknown, people in Nova Scotia in the 20th century,” said Saint Mary's University associate professor Jennifer Vanderburgh.
“Her promotional films about the province offer us a glimpse into how Nova Scotia saw itself in the '40s, '50s and '60s, or at least how the government wanted others to see the province. Perry was very interested in highlighting women's labour, co-operative labour, and how things were done or made.”
The exhibit officially launched on Sept. 19, as part of the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival.