Showing and Telling: Film heritage institutes and their performance of public accountability

"Showing and Telling is a book about a subject that has, until now, often eluded scholarly attention: the film archive as repository and the lack of transparent and consistent screening policies in an era of technological flux. But moreover, the book tells a story about the privileged world of the archivist and the scholar as successful navigators in a process of institutional gatekeeping, a process of willful restriction to archival holdings the author terms a ‘deficient performance of public accountability’.

Drawing on many years of professional experience and original scholarship, Nico De Klerk has produced an intimate account of a personal journey, in which he brings to light several case studies that focus on materials that do not feature regularly nor prominently in the public activities of film heritage institutes, and puts forward a number of suggestions to improve heritage institutions’ performance of public accessibility, both arguably consequences of having been part of that privileged world himself.

De Klerk’s ambitious critique of film heritage institutions Showing and Telling is a novel contribution to ongoing debates concerning issues of curatorship and heritage institutes’ public activities, as it interrogates what the potential ramifications are for the accounts of a country’s or region’s film heritage if these institutes retreat to a relatively restricted repertoire of materials. Showing and Telling is essential reading for both connoisseurs and the general public."

Dr Claudy Op den Kamp,

Bournemouth University;

Swinburne Law School, Australia