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| The EFG1914 web site |
EFG1914 is a digitisation project focusing on films and non-film material from and related to World War I. It started on 15 February 2012 and runs for two years. 26 partners, among them 21 European film archives, are working towards the following main goals: 1) To digitise 661 hours of film and ca. 5.600 film-related documents on the theme of the First World War 2) To give access to the material through the European Film Gateway and Europeana 3) To build a virtual exhibition using selected objects digitised in EFG1914.
EFG1914 covers all the different genres and sub-genres relevant in that time: newsreels, documentaries, fiction films, propaganda films. Moreover, EFG1914 will also give access to anti-war films that were mainly produced after 1918 and which reflect the tragedies of the 1910s. This material is of special importance since only around 20% of the complete silent film production survived in the film heritage institutions. Therefore, EFG1914 set out to digitize a crucial part and a critical mass of these remaining moving image records, mostly undiscovered by the public.
EFG1914 is the follow-up project of EFG – The European Film Gateway (2008-2011). The main outcome of the EFG project is the online portal The European Film Gateway, which gives access to several hundreds of thousands photos, films, texts and other material preserved in European film archives. More information on the initial EFG project can be found here.
Here below is the text of the press release related to the event held in Pordenone this week:
Since February 2013 the European Film Gateway has been enabling access to a growing number of films from and related the First World War. The material has been digitized within the scope of the EU-funded EFG1914 project, which has been carried out by 26 partners including 21 film archives from all over Europe. A total of 661 hours of newsreels, feature films, documentaries, amateur footage and propaganda films as well as 5,600 photographs and stills, film posters and articles from historical film journals will be available on the European Film Gateway and Europeana websites in time for the centenary of the Great War in early 2014. As approximately 80% of films from this period are considered lost the material provided through
EFG1914 represents a considerable
share of what has been preserved from the time.
Digitising and giving online access
to the WWI-related films and documents held by the archives will make it easier
for a wider audience to use them. The archives contributing to EFG1914 are
located in 15 different European countries, many of which were the main powers
during the First World War (eg, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Italy, Romania, Serbia etc.) or remained neutral like Denmark, Spain
and the Netherlands. Thus, the films offered on the European Film Gateway show
the Great War from different perspectives and different countries.
During the Pordenone Silent Film
Festival the EFG1914 project partners will present the European Film Gateway as
a unique and valuable search tool for moving images from 1914-1918. Colleagues
from the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, Cineteca di Bologna, Det Danske
Filminstitut, Deutsches Filminstitut, EYE Film Institute, Narodní filmový
archiv, and
Österreichisches Filmmmuseum will
talk about their collections and highlight selected films.
The EFG1914 project continues the
work carried out by the EFG project in 2008-2011, which developed the European
Film Gateway. At present over 600,000 items from 24 film archives are available
online at europeanfilmgateway.eu and europeana.eu.
EFG1914 was commissioned by the
Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) and is co-funded by the
Community Programme ICT PSP. The project started in February 2012 and will last
for two years. It is coordinated by the Deutsches Filminstitut in Frankfurt.
First World War Films on The European Film Gateway:
