Notes on visiting the Northeast India Audiovisual Archive:

Interaction between Shillong and Yamagata

Abstract

  Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival has been held every other year since 1989, and has the Yamagata Documentary Film Library which collects, preserves, and gives access to the past entries of the festival, including award winning titles. The author, who has been assigned to conduct a survey of the library collection, had the opportunity to visit its sister organization, the Northeast India AV Archive. This newly established archive in India, a country with a rapidly growing economy, is aiming to protect the cultural identity of the Northeast, while the veteran library in Yamagata opened in the 1990s when motion picture film was still the mainstream medium. Both are crucial institutions for each region, and the exchange between the old and new has mutually beneficial significance.