Nation, Pedagogy & Cinema: The University of the Philippines Film Institute AV Archives Collections

Collection Catalogue

A collection-level survey, supported by item-level documentation of container information, yielded a catalog of 865 U-Matic tapes and 2,463 Open Reels. Together, this catalog of the two collections forms the core of the Nation, Pedagogy & Cinema: The University of the Philippines Film Institute AV Archives Collections project.

• Collections Catalog(opens in a new tab)
• Technical Report of the Audiovisual Archival Survey(opens in a new tab)

U-Matic Collection (1927–2002)

Spanning production years from 1927 to 2002, the UPFI Film Archives’ total U-matic holdings and provide a vivid portrait of the institution’s early development and archival philosophy. With 557 (64.47%) of the tapes sourced from the United Nations and affiliated international bodies, the collection reflects the transnational networks cultivated by founding director Virginia “Virgie” Moreno, whose leadership in UNESCO secured a wealth of educational and development-focused media in the Archives.

The remaining tapes represent non-UN content, showcasing the UPFC’s pioneering film literacy initiatives in the country. Smaller categories, such as The Shahani Perspective (8 tapes), Presidential Press Office materials (5), and UP College of Mass Communication outputs (3), highlight the breadth of Philippine sociopolitical media preserved in the archive.

Open Reel Collection (1963-1982)

The Open Reel collection comprises 2,463 audio reels spanning the years 1963 to 1982. The bulk of the collection—2,367 reels or 96.1%—is categorized as Malacañang Open Reels, which document the official engagements of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and First Lady Imelda Marcos. These include press interviews (568 reels), speeches (800 reels), conferences (402 reels), meetings (578 reels), and a small number of untitled reels (19). These materials were largely produced by the Presidential Press Office and the National Media Production Center (NMPC), forming an extensive archive of government communications and media output during the Marcos administration.

Legal Report

An urgent concern of the team was the rights management of the collections. This concern stems from the knowledge that the cataloguing being done is ultimately aimed at preserving and later digitizing the materials for public access. To address these concerns from the outset, the team engaged a group of legal consultants to provide project-specific legal guidance, ensuring that all activities would align with intellectual property laws and ethical access standards.

• Legal Report on the Archival Project "Nation, Pedagogy and Cinema: The University of the Philippines Film Institute AV Archives Collections(opens in a new tab)

The UPFI Film Archives & Library is one of the earliest film archives in Southeast Asia. It was established in 1976 as part of the then-autonomous UP Film Center (UPFC) housed within the University. In 1983, the UPFC became an official academic unit of the University under the College of Mass Communication (CMC) before finally merged with the CMC Department of Film and Audiovisual Communication in 2003. Renamed the University of the Philippines Film Institute (UPFI), the merger unified and restructured both units to strengthen the institution’s role in advancing Filipino film education, creative practice, and scholarly research. Since then, the Archives has been integrated into the University of the Philippines library system, serving both as the college audiovisual repository and academic service unit supporting research, teaching, and cultural preservation.

As the core of the former UPFC, the Archives was built on principles of film literacy, preservation, and public access—core values championed by founding director Virginia “Virgie” Moreno. A poet, playwright, and UNESCO Culture Committee Chair for the Philippines, Moreno positioned the UPFC as a hub for critical film engagement. From modest beginnings—a small collection stored in a steel cabinet and beneath classroom tables—the Archives grew into a pioneering institution, securing support from the University, UNESCO and other institutions that enabled it to establish an infrastructure, acquire U-matic telecine systems, build a temperature-controlled vault, and train audiovisual archivists for long-term preservation.

Over time, the Archives expanded its holdings to include AV deposits from government and media institutions, copies of films provided by institutional collaborators for public screening, donations from noted filmmakers such as Ishmael Bernal, and more recently, a growing body of student works and other AV donations. Beyond the University, it has played a formative role in regional film preservation efforts, actively participating in ASEAN-led initiatives and helping establish the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA). It has also contributed to national cultural policy through its involvement in the National Committee on Archives and the broader Society of Filipino Archivists (SFA).

However, persistent challenges remain. The merger and restructuring that led to the establishment of the UPFI in the early 2000s redirected institutional priorities away from the archives’ physical infrastructure and long-term preservation needs. By 2013, logistical limitations compelled the partial transfer of fragile celluloid materials to the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), a process that continued until 2018. Crucially, the University Library lacks a dedicated plantilla position for an audiovisual archivist and has yet to implement a standardized AV archiving workflow. The absence of professional archival staff over an extended period further strained operations. In recent years, however, archivists Arnulfo Junio and Carina Samaniego have begun to restore momentum, reactivating the Archives’ foundational mission through systematic cataloging and renewed collection development.

In 2023, the Archives secured a planning grant from the UCLA Modern Endangered Archives Program for the project Nation, Pedagogy & Cinema: The University of the Philippines Film Institute AV Archives Collections. This initiative targets the preservation of its most vulnerable collections, the U-matic and Open Reel tapes, affirming its role in safeguarding Filipino audiovisual heritage and reaffirming its founding vision: to serve as a living archive where cinema functions as a medium of education, historical memory, and cultural heritage.

From: Junio, A. (2024). UPFI Film Archives & Library Manual of Operations