NFSA - The Strategic Plan for 2015-2018

Released without any accompanying media statement (at least not one put up on the NFSA website or even more precisely one that I could find, the NFSA says its “ Strategic Plan 2015-2018  articulates our vision, our key principles, and our three-year strategic focus.”

So folks, there is no attempt by the NFSA, or any spin doctors, to direct any analysis, marshal thoughts towards any conclusion or even provide a quick pep talk as to what’s up. That’s interesting.  So far only Don Groves online at Inside Film has provided any commentary though I cant claim to have been surfing the net looking for stories. Don has reported a few words I offered about the Plan thus: “I was a vocal critic of the NFSA’s lack of transparency a year ago, (but) welcome the strategic plan’s assertion that the federal government must play a part in providing additional resources. The film and television industry, key individuals of influence, cinephiles and indeed the general public have to develop strategies to ensure this happens. I have said on countless occasions that the government, successive governments, have let the NFSA and its senior management down in some serious ways”.

More analysis will follow but in the meantime I can say I’m impressed by the NFSA management’s willingness to put numbers next to its ambitions. Thus the Plan proposes there will be ten feature films a year restored. There will be 75 oral histories. There’s much more and I’m reminded of all that advice from senior bureaucrats and Ministers lo those many years ago about putting firm numbers in any document about what might happen in the future. “Aaaaahh, nooooo!” they would say. They had no wish to be held hostage to such fortune. More on all that later. Meanwhile, for a bolder agenda may I remind you that you can check out Tony Buckley’s grand plan for film preservation and if you feel like publicly endorsing it then please let me know  and I’ll add your name to the list of people who have put up their hands in support.