A Tale of Three Buildings

Abstract

The 2004 closure of the Philippine Information Agency's Motion Picture Division (PIA-MPD) had negative repercussions on three key collections entrusted to the PIA: films from the National Media Production Center; the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (including remnants of the defunct Film Archives of the Philippines); and LVN Pictures. Analyzing the makeshift digitization of two propaganda films about Ferdinand Marcos's 1972 declaration of martial law, the chapter affirms the need for public accountability and legislation to safeguard the institutional continuity and autonomy of audiovisual archives from the vagaries of political whim. Reflecting on the archivist-activists who endured the collapse of various archives, the chapter concludes by conceptualizing archival survival as involving more than the material preservation of media. Philippine archival survival also entails exhaustion and persistence on the part of archivists who persevere in institutional conditions they work to change.