SCUM MANIFESTO the FILM 8

about the restorationof SCUM ManifestoBy the bnf

alain carou

This publication proposes to discover SCUM Manifesto, by Del-phine Seyrig and Carole Roussopoulos, in an unreleased version restored by the Audio-Visual department of the Bibliothèque na-tionale de France (BnF). While still relatively young (about forty years at most), the video heritage has nonetheless been marked by time. It is only beginning to receive special care and video is rare-ly restored according to the aesthetic, technical and ethical rules comparable to those prevailing in film libraries for the restoration of films.

SCUM Manifesto was filmed in black and white 1 on a half-inch, open-reel video tape — the first video recording format economi-cally and ergonomically accessible to non-professionals. The filmed images were copied on a IVC one-inch tape, giving the videogram its final form. Copies were then made from the mother-tape for its distribution — probably initially on half-inch tape formats and then, shortly after on three-quarter-inch video-cassette formats.

Since the mother-tape is deemed lost, as are the shooting for-mats, we only have access to copies. Yet, regardless of the special care taken to ensure the copying of the analogue recordings, the latter involved a loss of quality: a loss of information and an in-crease in picture noise. In addition, any copy defect is transmitted