The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada is inviting submissions for its project, Vanishing Media.


This project will document works (films, radio and television programming, and audio recordings) that are not known because they have been lost, or virtually lost, over the years.  Sadly, there are hundreds of choices. For example, the Library & Archives catalogue lists 1222 Canadian feature films for the years 1913-1985, but their collection contains a mere 440. Sound recordings have a similar survival rate for their first 70 years with radio and television considerably poorer over their first 50 years. Even new works are disappearing, an unfortunate indicator that creators, librarians and archivists, and scholars are continuing to neglect our audio-visual heritage.

We are inviting submissions from audio-visual creators, scholars and students, and from cultural custodians of our audio-visual heritage.  We ask you to tell us: 

· Who produced, wrote, sang, composed, created, distributed, commissioned, broadcast, and/or performed the Vanishing Media the world should know about?

· What was the context, the genre, audience expectations, audience and critical reaction when your Vanishing Media was created?

· What did the Vanishing Media you are discussing look and sound like - how do you know?

· Why should we care about this Vanishing Media?

· What survives of this Vanishing Media ? - in all formats?

· Where does it survive and how might one access it?

We are also inviting thematic essays on genres of productions that have largely been lost; on restoration or salvage projects that are rescuing our audio-visual works; and bodies of works that have been forgotten.  Do bring such potential essays to our Committee so that we can point contributors to ongoing work in progress.

Our Committee - Ernest J. Dick, Chair and Historian of Sound and the Moving Image; Sam Kula, Archival Consultant; Richard Lochead, Manager, Film/Broadcasting, Library and Archives Canada; Pierre Véronneau, Archivist, Canadian and Quebec Film, Cinémathèque québécoise; Larry LeBlanc, President, Brycemoore Music, Broadcaster, Researcher in Canadian Music; Luc Desjardins, President, Phonothèque québécoise; and Gene Walz, University of Manitoba look forward to reading your submissions.  We will offer constructive comments because we need to have all your submissions in all media.

We ask that you submit your stories, images (print-quality) with credit and cut-line to info@avtrust.ca

Vanishing Media will become the best resource for any reference to our audio-visual heritage.  It will also raise public awareness of the need to act now to ensure that the productions of today are available to future generations. And, the project might even result in the resurfacing of even one "disappeared" work!  Vanishing Media needs your contributions to accomplish this!

We look forward to reading your submissions. To learn more about the AV Trust, its activities, and membership opportunities, please visit our website at www.avtrust.ca.

Vanishing Media Submissions