Dear Anna,
I can point you to two databases that were
created for this purpose but are no longer
accessible.
There used to be a database at www.24-25.fr but
this website is no longer active do to an
irreversible server crash. You can see a snapshot
of it here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140302203010/http://24-25.fr/
It was compiled by a group comprising almost all
the distribution cooperatives in France and was
to include also all museum and cinematheques with
film collections when the project collapsed.
The architecture was based on another database of
media art archves that is also unfortunately out
of commission though you can still consult the
home page: http://www.gama-gateway.eu/
These databases are inactive because they were
designed to migrate information from each
organization's online database and funnel all the
data and metadata into an index that would allow
you to search for any film or filmmaker and find
results in every archive. However, unlike a
search engine for best plane fares that simply
answers each query with a specialized search, the
information was compiled regularly on the
database server which required regular
maintenance and complex updating because each
individual database is so different. State
funding dried up and no one group could manage
running the index.
As it stands now, each organization has its own
database but there is no community database.
Almost every country has an archive of
experimental production, to name just two
examples the archives of The Balázs Béla Studio
(BBS) or the Serbian alternative film archive
http://www.dksg.rs/afc-redakcija. There are also
extensive collections in Asia but again you will
have to consult each collection individually.
There are many resources available, such as this
list, but for now still no database of all
archives.
Good luck,
Pip Chodorov
At 11:12 +0100 21/02/16, Anna Briggs wrote:
I am writing to ask where I might possibly find
an index of experimental film and/or video art
collections and archives. I am particularly
looking for archives in non-Western countries,
to investigate as part of a thesis chapter about
the experimental paradigm. I have consulted
lists of films archives compiled by the
International Federation of Film Archives, the
Association of Moving Image Archivists and the
Library of Congress, but I wonder if there is a
more specialised database.
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