Opening the event, Karen Chan, President of the SEAPAVAAsaid that 2020-2021 is a tough period for archiving and heritage agencies dueto the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted that the current unprecedented challenges have posed impacts on allfields in the global scale, with archiving collections becoming a source ofinspiration and drawing more attention.
The changing environment has forced people working in archivingsector to work harder to keep memories for future generations and create animportant resource as well as a source of hope to overcome the current hard time, she added.
Addressing the event, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports andTourism Ta Quang Dong said the foundation of SEAPAVAA 25 yearsago marked a milestone for those working in filmarchiving, showing the responsibility and dedication toward the cause ofpreserving moving image heritage of countries and territories of the region – adedication that has stemmed from various authorities and professionals alike.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnamalways attaches great importance to the work of archiving, preserving andpromoting film heritage, stated the official.
In recent times, the Vietnam Film Institute - an activemember of SEAPAVAA - has made continual efforts in fulfilling its tasks inarchiving, preserving and promoting the value of moving image materials in Vietnam,said Dong.
Hosting this annual conference on the Silver Jubileeanniversary of SEAPAVAA is a great honour for Vietnam, giving the country achance to show its international commitments, and make contributions to the association’sactivities, he said.
Dong expressed his belief that participants will sharevaluable experiences and lessons, sketching out action plans to develop andconnect the work of archiving, preserving, promoting and disseminatingaudio-visual materials by optimising the increasingly popular digital platforms.
SEAPAVAA was founded in 1996 in Manila, the Philippines,with its annual conference held in a rotation format by its members.
As a founding member of the association, the Vietnam FilmInstitution hosted three conferences in 1998, 2004 and 2012.
The 25th conference of the SEAPAVAA will rununtil June 27. This is the first time a conference has been held virtually. Anumber of sidelines activities will be held, including an exhibition of movingimage on Vietnamese tourism and a Vietnamese film screening./.