FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026

Television historians inevitably have to contend with gaps when examining the audiovisual archives of broadcasters and preservation institutions, especially when searching for records from the medium’s early decades. However, this is a communication technology — and a domestic device — whose development has enabled audiences themselves to engage in practices of capturing and archiving content, a dynamic that has expanded significantly in the online environment.


Today, many TV fans make use of collective digital video-sharing platforms to upload recordings of old programs, originally captured on VHS tapes or DVDs. Some of these users have become known for this type of activity, at times receiving audiovisual materials from professionals who once worked behind the scenes in television. Not infrequently, clips made available by these fans are also used in contemporary productions focused on the careers of television personalities. Even the disputes between these viewer-archivists and active TV networks — dissatisfied with having recordings of their productions shared by third parties — ultimately attest to the recognition achieved by these fans, who are transformed into “professional-amateurs” as they demonstrate competencies related to the history of television in Brazil.


This paper discusses how the archives of viewer-archivists, as well as fandom practices attentive to past content made available by TV channels on their over-the-top platforms, have contributed to the preservation and narration of Brazilian television memory. Although fan archives are shaped by a curatorial dynamic guided by personal taste and affective investments, they constitute important sources for researchers due to their potential to house records that are no longer present in the broadcasters’ own archives. Moreover, fans dedicated to monitoring the streaming catalogs of TV networks shed light on the very archiving dynamics adopted by media conglomerates over time, revealing continuities, gaps, and reconfigurations in the criteria used for the preservation of television archives.

RTÉ Archives has, for many years, developed meaningful partnerships with cultural institutions, community organisations and memory networks across Ireland and the Diaspora. Central to this work is a commitment to meeting communities where they are, recognising that meaningful engagement with audiovisual heritage happens both in physical public spaces and online environments that people already use and trust. Through collaboration with museums, libraries, cultural centres and creative community initiatives, RTÉ Archives is able to open the collections of Ireland’s public service broadcaster in ways that cannot be achieved alone, supporting engagement and dialogue across all island of Ireland and diasporic contexts.
Aligned with FIAT/IFTA’s 2026 theme, “Audiovisual Memories as Spaces of Dialogue”, the presentation illustrates how cross‑institutional and community partnerships enable audiovisual archives to function as dynamic civic resources. Working across physical public spaces, online environments and specially designed, curated applications, these initiatives demonstrate how innovative uses of audiovisual archival collections can support inclusive dialogue and meaningful engagement with shared histories across different communities, sectors and generations.

The Importance of Archives in Non-Fiction True Crime Series
The true crime genre has become one of the most widely consumed formats in contemporary audiovisual culture. From classic documentaries to series on digital platforms, one of its essential characteristics is the use of archival materials: police recordings, news footage, trial tapes, photographs, home videos, or excerpts from television programs. These elements are not merely visual resources; they form the foundation that provides credibility, depth, and legitimacy to criminal storytelling. I will talk about 

1. Archives as a guarantee of authenticity
2. Archives as a narrative tool
3. Archives and collective memory
4. Archives as a space of power and ethics
5. Archives as an instrument of public truth
6. The role of the archivist in non-fiction true crime series

This piece explores how the Madeja Archive was created and how it has developed over time. Madeja isn’t just any archive, it’s a dynamic, evolving collection housed within the Fundación de Arte Contemporáneo (FAC) in Uruguay. It all began in the early 2000s, driven by a genuine sense of urgency among artists and curators. They noticed that fragile audiovisual works from the late ’70s onward, recorded on U-Matic, VHS, Betacam, MiniDV, Hi8, and even film, were slowly deteriorating and at risk of disappearing forever.
But Madeja was never intended to be a cold, neutral storage room. From its inception, it was political, personal, and even a bit defiant. The archive emerged from moments when artists and curators discovered their own work decaying on shelves or realized that no one in Uruguay was supporting the preservation of independent audiovisual art. There were no public policies, no safety nets. Madeja approached preservation not only as a technical solution, but as a form of care, a gesture of resistance against being lost or erased.
Time operates differently within Madeja. It isn’t a neat, linear timeline. Each piece in the collection carries at least three layers of time (each layer occurring decades apart): 1. the moment the artist created it, 2. the moment it joined the archive, and 3. the moment someone revisits it to reuse or reinterpret it. Madeja preserves everything: tapes, boxes, handwritten labels, curated playlists, notes from the era. It isn’t just about digital files, it’s about maintaining the complexity and context of each object and the web of relationships around it. The archive ends up resembling a tangled skein (a “madeja” in Spanish) where different eras, technologies, and emotions are intertwined.
This presentation situates Madeja at the heart of important discussions about memory, media archaeology, and the ecological politics of digital preservation. It examines what happens when data exists within fragile environments, or when issues of power and funding (or the lack thereof) determine what survives. By emphasizing collective authorship, marginalized voices, and activist modes of archiving, Madeja understands memory not as a finished narrative, but as something always evolving. It’s about creating room for future curators, artists, and educators to keep these works alive and relevant, regardless of how much time goes by.