Chile paralelo 56

UNESCO's concern for audiovisual heritage within the Memory of the World (MoW) Programme originated the Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images, adopted by the General Conference in October 1980. The recommendation acknowledged the rapid disappearance of film materials, with early cinema particularly affected: by the mid-1990s, more than three-quarters of the earliest film production had been lost. Films from as recently as 1990 required restoration. The document identified three periods of large-scale film loss linked to changes in taste or commercial interest: the destruction of early cinema, the transition from silent to sound film, and the replacement of nitrate stock with acetate base. To mark the centenary of cinema (1895-1995), UNESCO's General Information Programme and UNISIST compiled Memory of the World: National Cinematic Heritage (CII.95/WS/7, Paris, September 1995). This was the first list published as part of the MoW Programme. UNESCO contacted national film archives and similar institutions, requesting each to identify approximately fifteen films considered representative of their national cinematic heritage. Responses were received from fifty countries and territories: Angola, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine, the United States, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.