40 Years Of Archives Lost By Floodings

[Dominique De Bast]

As some may have heard, Belgium (and Germany) have suffered from severe floodings, mainly in the South of the country (many lives were lost and material damages are numerous). It is an unexpected disaster at this time of the year ans tomorrow will be a national mourning day. Among the victims, the Filmmaker Thierry Michel, who is specialized in Congo (Belgian formers colony). A part of his work is definitely lost. In this sequence (in French), you can see during a few seconds (at 1:06) 16 mm films rescued from a cave : Belgique : des années d'archives perdues dans les inondations | TV5MONDE - Informations

[Lee Mannering]

Hopefully a digital backup is out there somewhere Dom.

[Dominique De Bast]

Only for the finished films, Lee. There are copies (even on tv channels) but all the footage not used is those films is lost. Since the filmmaker made documentaries, there was a lot of interesting documents of grat interest. All the notes on paper are also lost forever and the posters of the films are destroyed as well (I don't know if there are other copies around).