With the aim of preserving, but also of knowing each film better, Mountain Film Institute dedicates an important part of its resources to the creation and maintenance of a global digital archive that wants to host the world's most extensive and complete collection of mountain films.

MNTNFILM collection gathers thousands of films that have been scanned, digitized or restored; and that are stored on digital media to ensure its optimal preservation.
 

Endangered films

Any film is endangered of ending up being lost forever if it is not properly preserved. That's a fact. And what is also obvious is that the less commercial a film is, the greater is its risk of disappearance. If this is already an evident problem in commercial and mass cinema, it's much more serious if we think in mountain cinema, which abounds with many productions that have not been seen beyond specialized film festivals.

Of course, the risk is bigger the older the film is, but it's something that also threatens modern productions. In fact, many films that were produced at the beginning of the 20th century have survived all those years thanks to its singularity and importance at the time they were produced, and also –not to be forgotten– due to the durability of the film prints in which they were distributed (in 35 or 16mm, for example). From this perspective, the following questions are inevitable:

What or who ensures the preservation of all those recent films that have been produced and stored in digital supports, and distributed through online video platforms such as YouTube? How many of those films will still be available in any format in 25, 50 or 100 years?

That's why we think that although it is important to preserve films of the analog era (which were published on different supports: 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, 9.5mm, Laserdisc, VHS, Beta, etc.), it is also important to preserve modern films. Although these films were produced in the digital and Internet era and can be easily copied, nothing ensures its preservation for posterity. Neither for those that were published on physical media (DVD or Bluray), nor for those that were broadcasted on television or were distributed on video platforms, and much less for those that were only exhibited at film events and festivals.

Help us preserve

If you have material that you think may be interesting to be kept in the Mountain Film Institute Archives, please contact us through the film donation form. We will be glad to answer your proposal and discuss any possibility of donation, purchase, lending, or collaboration.

Copyright

Mountain Film Institute Archives are private. Right now they aren't accessible to the general public. We scrupulously respect the copyright and undertake not to distribute, copy or show any film, except in cases where either particular agreements have been established with the authors, or the works are in the public domain. In the future, we may consider opening the archives through agreements with researchers or other organizations, but this will always be done respecting the copyright rules and the will of the filmmakers.