National Film and Sound Archive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Australian National Film and Sound Archive preserves and shares Australia's moving images and sound recordings from the country's first film images to the modern classics. The work that the Archive undertakes dates back to the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library (part of the then Commonwealth Library), which was established by a Cabinet decision on 11 December 1935. The National Film and Sound Archive was created as a separate Commonwealth collecting institution in 1984. At that time, a Council was established to guide the institution. In 1999 the organisation changed its name to ScreenSound Australia, the National Screen and Sound Archive. From 1 July 2003, ScreenSound Australia became part of the Australian Film Commission and its original name, the National Film and Sound Archive was reinstated. [1]

[edit] History of the building:

In 1910, King O’Malley, the Minister for Home Affairs declared that Canberra, Australia’s infant National Capital would be ‘the finest capital city in the world’.

The Wall Street Stock market crash in 1929 placed significant constraints on this vision. Plans for new projects were abandoned and the population stalled at approximately 9,000 people. The Great Depression restricted vital funding for construction and brought development of the city to a standstill.

Fortunately, the building which now houses the National Film and Sound Archive was one of the few public buildings provided by the Federal Capital Commission before it was abolished in the early 1930s (it was later re-established as the National Capital Development Commission by Prime Minister Menzies).

This building was the home of the Australian Institute of Anatomy from 1931-84. Originally it held the anatomy collection of Sir Colin MacKenzie. This collection included the heart of the celebrated Australian racehorse Phar Lap. Professor Sir Colin MacKenzie became the founding director of the Institute on Anatomy, and on his death in 1938 his ashes were placed behind a commemorative plaque in the building’s foyer.

According to the Register of the National Estate, buildings constructed during this phase were ‘built to broaden national interest and establish the city as a centre of archives and collections’. As such it became a fitting home in 1984 for Australian items of enduring cultural significance collected by the newly created National Film and Sound Archive. Every effort has been made to retain the heritage aspects of the building in its use as a modern archive.

Both grand and austere, the building is often classified as art deco, though its overall architectural style is technically ‘Late 20th Century Stripped Classical’, the style of ancient Greece and Rome but simplified and modernised.

Classical architecture was popular during the 1930s and 40s but lost favour after the downfall of Germany’s Third Reich. The style was again revived in the early 1960s and became common for government buildings in Canberra during this time. Examples include the Law Courts of the ACT (1961) and the National Library of Australia (1968).

Buildings in this style often feature a symmetrical façade, a horizontal skyline, classical columns and a central entrance. Traditional building materials such as stone and terracotta are often employed.

The building characterises what the Register of the National Estates has described as ‘some of the finest examples of nationalistic Australian Art Deco design and detailing in Australia.’

The art deco influence is evident in the strong and consistent decorative features of native flora, fauna and Aboriginal art and motifs throughout the building. The entrance features a curved central bay decorated with goannas, ferns and waratahs. The entrance door itself has a carved stone surround of open-mouthed frilled lizards framed in triangles. Tiled panels beneath the windows at the front of the building have blue and green motifs which resemble Aboriginal bark paintings.

The foyer’s beautiful interior features a geometrically patterned marble floor. The black marble in the floor was quarried from the Acton Peninsula, now submerged beneath Lake Burley Griffin.

The foyer also features a stained-glass platypus skylight. Face masks of well-known scientists of the era are featured on the foyer’s walls as a reminder of its previous incarnation as the Institute of Anatomy.

Beyond the foyer is a tranquil landscaped courtyard. Each side of the courtyard features carved wombat heads over the main arches. The courtyard leads to two galleries which now hold fascinating exhibitions.

The original part of the building has a theatre and research centre. Each area is decorated in geometric art deco patterns, a feature repeated throughout the building in its doors, ventilators and light fittings. The theatre was the meeting place for one of Australia’s pioneering film societies in the 1930s—the Canberra Film Society.

In 1999, the building’s large triple-level rear wing was opened. This new wing’s design is in keeping with the Art Deco style of the main structure with details and finishes to match the original.

Today, the building is open to the public as a treasure house of Australian film, television and sound recordings.

[edit] The Scientists:

The foyer walls feature 12 scientists (two of which are death masks):

Name	Lifetime	Nationality & Profession
Sir Harry Brookes ALLEN	1854 – 1926	Australian Pathologist
John BELL	1763 – 1820	Scottish Anatomist
Charles Robert DARWIN	1809 – 1882	English Naturalist
George Britton HALFORD	1824 – 1910	Anglo-Australian Anatomist and Physiologist
William HARVEY	1578 – 1657	English Anatomist
John HUNTER	1728 – 1793	Scottish Surgeon
Jean Baptiste LAMARCK	1744 – 1829	French Naturalist
Joseph LISTER	1827 – 1912	English Surgeon
Louis PASTEUR	1822 – 1895	French microbiologist and chemist
Sir James Young SIMPSON	1811 – 1870	Scottish Obstetrician and Anaesthetist
Sir Edward Charles STIRLING	1848 – 1919	Australian Surgeon
Sir Thomas Anderson STUART	1856 – 1920	Scots-Australian Physiologist