Conserving and disseminating the pictures and sounds of the French national radio and television channels, highlighting their significance and sharing them with the widest possible audience: since its creation in 1974, this is the core mission of the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel. Ina today is a benchmark for digital archive conservation and the commercialisation of audiovisual archives.

 

As the leader of the Med-Mem project, Ina has selected more than 600 archive items which reflect the history of the Mediterranean, from the ancient heritage of Provence and the Côte d’Azur, up to the current challenges of the Arab Springs, without omitting the episodes of France’s colonial involvement in the Mashriq and the Maghreb in the first half of the 20th century.

The Mediterranean is a clearly identified and recurrent theme in both television and radio programmes. One of the flagship collections is the emblematic series “Méditerranée”, commissioned in 1976 by ORTF in coproduction with RAI, consisting of 12 thematic programmes, providing for the first time a global vision of the Mediterranean area, based on the works of the historian Fernand Braudel. More recently, the magazine programme “Mediterraneo” is a fine example of cross-border television, started up by the journalist Sampiero Sanguinetti in 1994, and co-produced by the regional units of Marseille and Ajaccio for France 3 and by TGR Palermo for RAI, in conjunction with other channels from the Mediterranean area. It takes the lid off the whole Mediterranean area, while revealing the inaccuracies of a great deal of received wisdom.

These pictures and sounds of the Mediterranean, which bear witness to the events which have taken place there and to its inhabitants, constitute a collective memory, which is today offered to the younger generation with the perspective and critical insight of researchers in the humanities and social sciences.   

 

 

Mireille Maurice – Regional Delegate, Head of Med-Mem project

 

Maxime Sanson – Deputy Head of Med-Mem project

 

MC Hélias Sarre – Documentary Officer