Belinda Peters and Martin Radermacher initiate collaboration to digitize missionary films
The poor condition of some of the films and the lack of technical equipment made it impossible to view them on site. Belinda Peters and Martin Radermacher handed over the films to historian Jonas van Mulder after intensive preliminary discussions about possible cooperation between CERES and KADOC.
The institution has the necessary expertise with regard to the digitization of missionary films, as the Belgian White Fathers, for example, have already handed over their film archive to KADOC as a deposit for this purpose. When the films from CERES have undergone an initial screening in Leuven and the content has been documented, the next step for Belinda Peters and Martin Radermacher is to draw up a list of priorities for the digitization of the film collection in consultation with experts from KADOC. The aim is to make all films accessible in digital form for scientific research in the long term.
The films, which are between 60 and almost 100 years old, were shot in the White Fathers' mission areas in Africa and in their home settlements. They are documentaries and feature films that were used by the missionaries for missionary advertising and as educational material. The White Fathers had set up their own production sites on location in Africa for film production. Among the missionary films in the CERES collection are films from this film production as well as unique pieces made by individual missionaries at their places of work.
