Big trouble at the film and sound archive

I believe this man might be a Roman. In my day, we would impale him and leave him to the vultures.

He should surely have been sacked – and what was the Archive doing trying to keep corrupt behaviour a secret? The Archives have always operated outside Public Service standards – ask any of the damaged film winders from the 1991 ‘film rescue’ project. Conditions were so dreadful (on top of nepotism and corruption) that some 20 film winders ended up with permanent arm damage, and there was even an epidemic of glandular fever in one of the airless demountables – people were breathing each other’s air so closely it was the epidemiological equivalent of kissing contact. Two technicials were damaged from working next to open vats of dangerous chemicals. The whole business arose because some incompetent mistook transit winds for storage winds, and had his staff giving the film tight winds – so tight they bounced the reels around the room to ‘test’ how tight they were’. Then, with the option of cool, dry, expensive storage conditions, or cheap, warm, humid conditions, the Archive decided on the latter. Saved a few bucks, and then had to spend a million on rescuing the footage. Oh, and another thing. One of the conservators was considered so vital and valuable to the institution, because he was at the cutting edge of rescuing film from mold damage, that a sexual harrassment case was hushed up. Misery all around. It’s apparently still a dreadful institution. The only OK thing was that staff were sanctioned by management to use the distilling facilities to distil alcohol in an upstairs room. Quite some expertise was developed!

I wonder when the Business Council will announce just what their plans are for screenACT, morgan.

filmmakers feathering their own beds is a common thing… check the recent decision by Nero to outsource ScreenAct to the local industry… read subsidies to select local video and tvc production companies

the canberra times is brilliant… there was an article on the exact same thing in the AFR about 4 fridays ago

Cultural cringe strikes again.

Why do they persist in getting these overseas directors to stuff up OUR national institutions
(Film Archive, Gallery, Questacon etrc).

Gee, an artist with his snout in the trough – who have thought!

Maybe he was having trouble getting onto the Australia Council nipple?