Museum Dance Off 2018 - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
The National Film and Sound Archive joins the #MDO5 Museum Dance Off competition! Please vote for us in the international final, from 10pm Monday 14 May to 9:59 Tuesday 15 May (Australian Eastern Time) at
Our staff took a very quick break from their vital work - preserving a collection of more than 2.8 million items, containing Australia's audiovisual heritage - to take a 'Step Back in Time'. Shot across our four sites in Acton and Mitchell (Australian Capital Territory), Sydney and Melbourne.
About the Museum Dance Off:
About the NFSA:
About Kylie Minogue:
Song: Step Back in Time
Artist: Kylie Minogue - from the 1990 album Rhythm of Love
Label: PWL, Mushroom
Songwriters/Producers: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman
The NFSA - keeping Australia's stories alive
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia is the nation’s ‘living archive’ – collecting, preserving and sharing our audiovisual heritage.
The NFSA is the custodian of the national audiovisual collection, which contains 2.1 million items spanning over 100 years of creative production in film, sound, and broadcast. The NFSA preserves an average of 7,000 titles every year, ensuring that our audiovisual memory survives the passage of time and is available to contemporary and future generations.
The collection includes every audiovisual format imaginable. It also encompasses documents and artefacts such as photographs, posters, lobby cards, publicity items, scripts, costumes, props, memorabilia, oral histories, and vintage equipment. These are priceless, irreplaceable objects which tell countless stories about Australia – who we were, who we are, and who we could become.
The National Film and Sound Archives
Heritage architect Eric Martin explains why the National Film and Sound Archives is a national treasure.
Barry Cohen on why Australia needed a National Film and Sound Archive
The Hon Barry Cohen MP talks about establishing the National Film and Sound Archive in 1984.
Mr Cohen was Minister for Home Affairs and the Environment from 1983 to 1984, and then Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Environment until 1987. He was interviewed by James McCarthy in 2008, for the NFSA's Oral History program.
NFSA 773849
David Williamson on telling Australian stories
David Williamson reveals how local writers were on a mission in the late 1960s and 1970s to put Australian stories on the stage and screen, and how he enjoyed the opportunity to work on scripts for such iconic films as 'Gallipoli', 'The Year of Living Dangerously', and 'PharLap'.
David Williamson was interviewed by Susan Lever on 6 December 2011 for the Australian Writers' Foundation Oral History Project at his apartment in Sydney. Filmed by FOXTEL. NFSA title number 1037155 [WILLIAMSON, DAVID : INTERVIEWED BY SUSAN LEVER : ORAL HISTORY].
For further information about this clip or for enquiries about commercial use, please refer to access@nfsa.gov.au.
National Film and Sound Archive, Australian Capital Territory
See the National Film and Sound Archive, Australian Capital Territory and Australia- travel guides - videos, photos, accommodation and holiday information.
GOING TO THE HAUNTED NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVES (SCHOOL PROJECT)
Old vid for uni project lolz
Wotz @ The National Film & Sound Archive Canberra
The varied collection of preserved audio visuals, from all over Australia, housed at the NFSA in Canberra is a delight for all film lovers to enjoy.
Imagining Canberra
Take home a piece of Australia's national capital's history with the Imaging Canberra DVD. Relive the beginnings of Canberra in 'Naming the Federal Capital of Australia, March 12th 1913', see the opening of our first Parliament House, enjoy the lake in springtime and more with selected titles from the NFSA's Film Australia Collection.
Available from the NFSA Online Shop:
Cameras Roll. Film Australia Centennial Archival Mash Up
As the Film Australia Collection continues to celebrate its 100 years of film making we look through the archive and bring together more than a hundred FAC titles in a mash up highlighting some of the the people who made this incredible collection. Using only FAC original vision and audio we rework the themes of work and leisure that are so common through out the 100 years of FAC. The morning till night motif so often employed in FAC films is also used here with the use clocks constantly counting down the day. While the government films tended to show an up beat and harmonious portrayal of Australian life this mash up reveals a darker tale of power and control.
Devised and edited by NFSA archivist and film recycler Richard Carter. 2013. Featuring productions from the Cinema and Photographic Branch, The National Film Board, Commonwealth Film Unit and Film Australia.
See more content from the Film Australia Collection as it marks 100 years here:
Naming the Federal Capital of Australia, March 12th 1913 - digital restoration 2013
Directed by Raymond Longford and filmed by Ernest Higgins, this film captures the formal naming of Canberra, on 12 March 1913. It has been digitally restored by the NFSA as part of the celebrations for the Centenary of Canberra.
The music was devised and performed by Elaine Loebenstein ( This film is available on the DVD Imagining Canberra:
On the morning of Wednesday 12 March 1913, 500 invited guests, over 700 mounted and artillery troops and a public crowd of over 3000 locals came to witness the formal naming of Canberra. Foundation stones were laid by Governor-General Lord Thomas Denman, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher and the Minister for Home Affairs, King O'Malley. The national anthem was played and Lady Gertrude Denman announced the chosen name for the new-born federal capital. And so Canberra's life officially began.
The recently completed digital restoration of the film highlights beautiful, clear images of finely dressed guests in Model T Fords, wagons, buggies and bicycles coming down from the Molonglo River to watch the ceremony. We see the grandstand erected for the official guests just below Capital Hill, facing north-east across the valley to Mt Ainslie; Lady Denman, elegant in an ostrich-plumed hat and pearls greeting guests; and the troops from the Australian Field Artillery, Light Horse and New South Wales Lancers.
The film ends with a long panoramic sweep from Mt Pleasant taken the day after the ceremony. It starts roughly at Capital Hill, where both Parliament Houses now stand, moves east to west to Black Mountain and Mt Ainslie, before completing the circle with shots of Duntroon.
Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film - Science
This reminder of Canberra's astronomical activities is a preview of 'Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film' - a free stage show featuring film, live music and performance.
Imagining the Capital celebrates 100 years of lifestyle, politics, and architecture in Canberra through film and sound from the national audiovisual collection. A host of special guests will add musical performances.
This unusual movie screening -- 100 years in the making! -- will premiere excerpts from the digital restoration of the rarely-seen film Naming the Federal Capital of Australia, March 12th 1913 (Dir: Raymond Longford).
The screening on 10 March 2013 was accompanied by some of Canberra's, and Australia's, finest performers including Fred Smith, Louise Page, Stiff Gins (Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs), Alice Cottee and the legendary Patricia Amphlett (Little Pattie).
'Canberra's Calling to You' at Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film
A choir of Canberrans ranging from 4 to 82 years of age delivering their rendition of the nation capital's iconic song 'Canberra's calling to You' at our March 10 outdoor film screening and concert 'Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film'.
Conducted by ANU Music Engagement Program Coordinator Georgia Pike, with Elaine Loebenstein at the piano.
As part of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations, the NFSA invited the nation's musicians -- amateur and professional alike -- to get creative, create and share their own version of this song.
Highlights from Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film
With the special screening 'Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film' in the Senate Rose Gardens on Sunday 10 March, 2013, the NFSA celebrated the Centenary of Canberra with footage from the national audiovisual collection and live music.
We'd like to thank Creative Director, David Sequiera for his work bringing the event to life. We'd also like to thank the amazing Australian artists who performed live: The Stiff Gins; No Hausfrau; Rachael Thoms; Fred Smith; Louisa Page; Christine Wilson; Elaine Loebenstein; Little Pattie (Patricia Amphlett); Kyle Manning, Tahlia Makunde; and the NFSA Band.
Australian Identity: Migration
A preview of the AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY: MIGRATION film program, that screened during autumn 2016 at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, in Canberra.
More immigration films:
Australian identity: Landscape
A preview of the AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY: LANDSCAPE film program which screened during SPRING 2016 at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, in Canberra.
These documentaries reflect the harsh beauty and kaleidoscopic nature of the Australian landscape and the people who have made it their home:
9.15am The Great Coastal Dune Show
(1976, 11mins, D: Ron Saunders)
9.30am Antarctica 1948
(1949, 24mins, D: Department of
Information)
9.55am Whatever Happened to Green Valley
(1973, 53mins, D: Peter Weir)
10.50am Film Australia’s Outback
(2002, 198mins, D: Denise Haslem)
2.15pm The Spirit of the Plains
(1980, 9mins, D: David Muir)
2.25pm The Real Flying Doctors
(1992, 28mins, D: John Armstrong)
2.55pm Where the Forest Meets the Sea
(1987, 9mins, D: Jeannie Baker)
3.05pm The Snowy: A Dream of Growing Up
(1989, 60mins, D: Stephen Ramsey)
4.05pm The Land of the Lightning Brothers
(1987, 27mins, D: David Roberts)
4.32pm Ghan to Alice
(1978, 27mins, D: Curtis Levy)
Restoring NAMING OF CANBERRA (1913)
The NFSA digitally restored 'Naming the Federal Capital of Australia, March 12th 1913' for Canberra's Centenary celebrations in 2013.
Restored film:
Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film - Schools
This montage of school kids through the decades is a preview of 'Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film' - a free stage show featuring film, live music and performance.
Imagining the Capital celebrates 100 years of lifestyle, politics, and architecture in Canberra through film and sound from the national audiovisual collection. A host of special guests will add musical performances.
This unusual movie screening -- 100 years in the making! -- will premiere excerpts from the digital restoration of the rarely-seen film Naming the Federal Capital of Australia, March 12th 1913 (Dir: Raymond Longford).
The screening on 10 March 2013 will be accompanied by some of Canberra's, and Australia's, finest performers including Fred Smith, Louise Page, Stiff Gins (Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs), Alice Cottee and the legendary Patricia Amphlett (Little Pattie).
National Film and Sound Archive Canberra 2018
Springtime in Canberra
Film Australia's archive has merged with the National Film and Sound Archives, bringing with it fabulous old films like 'Springtime in Canberra '64'.