Introduction

In the archive of the Nederlands Filmmuseum there is a photograph that shows a number of people gathered together on a podium: the wall behind them is dominated by a large film screen, and a woman with long curly hair is speaking into a microphone (Image 3, page 60). All those present look slightly overwhelmed, shy but proud – perhaps of the speaker, perhaps of themselves. It was taken in 1991, at the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone, during Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Days of Silent Cinema), and the people on stage were employees of the Nederlands Filmmuseum (now EYE Filmmuseum). Along with their director Hoos Blotkamp, they were about to receive the most prestigious award for film history and archiving, the Premio Jean Mitry, established in 1986 to reward individuals or institutions for their ‘contribution to the reclamation and appreciation of silent cinema’. ¹ The Nederlands Filmmuseum was the first institution to be recognised in this way. To emphasise the fact that the institution and not just the director had received the accolade, Blotkamp asked all the Filmmuseum employees to come up on stage to celebrate their achievement together. The photo is a record of the high esteem in which the Filmmuseum was held by the film archive and film historical world in 1991 as a result of the institute’s pioneering work in the preservation and presentation of silent films.