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The Digitised
Banyan Archive
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BANYAN ARCHIVE METADATA
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After five years of work with the
National Library Services of Trinidad & Tobago, York University in
Toronto, Canada and the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine,
Trinidad, the Banyan Archive has now been digitised and a comprehensive
database of over 14,500 records of metadata for the over 3000 files has been
compiled. The database is available free on request from Banyan. This unique and invaluable archive,
the world’s largest digitised video archive of Caribbean culture and society
since the invention of the videocassette, is now being made available to
Educational institutions and libraries for students and researchers. |
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SEE THE ARCHIVE To
get a deeper appreciation of this historic archive you can access some video presentations
on the archive here: https://vimeo.com/133565760 (Banyan Archives)
(6 minutes) THE BANYAN COLLECTION 2 - The Power of
Video on Vimeo (6 minutes) AND: If you are interested in seeing a
longer (37 minutes) presentation made to the Turning Tides conference at the
University of the West Indies in 2016: Password: Spoiler (Paid) Access to the Banyan Archive
can be obtained through ALEXANDER
STREET PRESS ENDORSEMENTS Stephen Stuempfle Since the 1970s, the
Banyan team has been carrying out innovative and high-quality documentary
video projects on the history and cultural traditions of Trinidad and Tobago
and numerous other countries in the Caribbean. These community-oriented and
collaborative projects have resulted in one of the most wide-ranging and
in-depth archives of Caribbean thought and creativity. I am very pleased
to have had the opportunity to visit the climate-controlled Banyan Archive in
Port of Spain. The scope of the Archive's more than 3000 video recordings is
unparalleled. Among the vast holdings are documentaries of performances of
Orisha rituals in Trinidad; the Phagwa festival in Trinidad and Guyana;
Junkanoo in Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Belize; La Marguerite and La Rose
events in St. Lucia; and various Amerindian traditions in Guyana and
Dominica. The Archive also encompasses hundreds of interviews with Caribbean
artists and other figures, such as writers C.L.R. James, Derek Walcott and
George Lamming; calypsonians Roaring Lion, Lord Kitchener, Lord Pretender,
and David Rudder; visual artists Carlisle Chang, Ken Critchlow, and
Christopher Cozier; and filmmakers Euzhan Palcy, Horace Ové
and Perry Henzell. Stephen Stuempfle Executive
Director The Society for Ethnomusicology, Indiana University Milla Cozart
Riggio, Dr.
Christopher Laird, at the head of a very small team, has accomplished the
impossible under extremely difficult circumstances. For nearly half a century
he has preserved this extraordinary collection in careful climate-controlled
conditions, digitised it in the most sophisticated formats available and
catalogued each scene and sequence in detail. It is easy to use and in
searching through the archive one constantly encounters material that in
itself is rich, even astonishing, in its range and reach. Nowhere else
can one find such insightful, intimate and illuminating moving picture
records of seminal and iconic figures of the post-colonial Caribbean.
Especially invaluable are those of who have now
passed which offers new generations unique opportunities to
encounter the minds of: Lloyd Best, Beryl McBurnie,
Rex Nettleford, Derek Walcott, C.L.R. James among many others. It is far
and away the largest the best and the best preserved, catalogued, digitized
and protected archived in the Caribbean Milla Cozart Riggio, PhD Harvard University, James J. Goodwin Professor Emerita, Trinity College, Hartford
CT; Founding Board member of the Hemispheric Institute of
Performance and Politics. |
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