PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE'S
' TAKE 88' EXHIBITION
CHATSWOOD 1 AUGUST 1988
We are launching today a unique new venture in Australia's
cultural life the first travelling exhibition mounted by
the Australian National Film and Sound Archive.
In a very real sense movies and television programmes and
radio broadcasts are the essence of our popular culture.
Living in 1988 we are accustomed to being entertained and
informed by the avalanche of images pouring from our TVs and
cinemas and the cascade of sound emerging from our radios
and record players.
But it is easy to forget just how fragile are the image and
sound recordings that provide the basis of this culture.
Nitrate films, wax phonograph cylinders, radio discs are all
s ubject to decomposition and disintegration unless they are
cared for; video tape of news broadcasts and sporting events
are liable to be erased and reused unless they are copied
and stored.
That is why the Government established the National Film and
Sound Archive to provide in a proper way for the
preservation of these fragile expressions of our national
heritage and creativity and not just the preservation but
the display of them. That is what this exhibition,
' Take 88' seeks to do.
This exhibition will allow large numbers of Australians over
the coming months not only to relive some of the great
moments of Australian screen and sound but also to
appreciate the importance of the task of preserving them for
future generations.
Take 88 includes a tremendous range of footage and broadcast
material, old and new from Australia's oldest surviving
film, showing the Melbourne Cup of 1896, and the synthetic
cricket tests broadcast on radio in the 1930s, to the 1956
Melbourne Olympics and our Bicentennial Australia Day
celebrations this year. 745
2.
You will see the ads for Aeroplane Jelly and early model
Holdens, news broadcasts and movie newsreels, quiz shows,
comedians ranging from Roy Rene ' No' to Norman Gunston,
musicians from Dame Nellie Melba to Slim Dusty, and products
of one of the oldest and one of the best film industries in
the world our own film industry, which has been producing
box office successes to critical acclaim for more than
years.
And it's important to recognise that all the videos shown in
this exhibition have been dubbed and edited by technicians
in the Archive's own laboratory.
There are many people to thank for the hard work involved in
mounting this exhibition. I congratulate both the Wesgo
Group for its financial support, and Westfield for providing
venues in four states and travel costs. And I applaud the
initiative of the National Film and Sound Archive in
deciding to show the Australian people in this most direct
of ways just how rich is its collection.
z invite you all to enjoy the show and I have much pleasure
in declaring open ' Take 88'.
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