GENERAL ARCHIVAL AUTHORITY
ARCHIVAL CENTER OF FILM, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOUND
Since the establishment of the Mongolian film industry in 1936, Mongolia’s film archives have preserved a collection of documentary films, audio and film negatives, countertypes, and film stock.
As of today Mongolia’s archival collection includes:
- Documentary films: between 1938-2003, 1,009 topics, 2,392 archival units (episodes)
- Feature films: between 1936-2001, 1,488 topics, 212 archival units (episodes)
- Film news, magazines: between 1947-2012, 1,083 archival units (episodes)
- Films in translation: between 1947-1981, 199 topics, 1,585 archival units (episodes)
- 207 archival units (episodes) of 153 topics transferred from Ulaanbaatar TV, 1970-1987 (35 mm)
- 102 archival units (episodes) of 55 topics transferred from Ulaanbaatar TV, 1970-1986 (16 mm)
- 191 archival units (episodes) of 70 items from 1921-1992 transferred from the archives of the USSR
Resolution No.142 of the People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of Mongolia (1967) facilitated the expansion of the Film Archive into the STATE ARCHIVAL CENTER OF FILM, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOUND. In 1975 a building for storing film and photographic documents was provided.
One of the most important documents in the history of Mongolian cinematography is the “Rules of the STATE ARCHIVAL CENTER OF FILM, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOUND of the People’s Republic of Mongolia”. This document states that “all documents related to the history of Mongolia, including ancient and modern governments, the military, organizations at all levels, all sectors of the economy and culture, historical figures, as well as historical documents, photographs and films records, audio recordings, and important documents should be counted as archival material and will be legally owned by the state.”
The Archive has collected copies of foreign films that document Mongolian life before 1911, 1921 and 1936. In 1971 the archive received 13 episodes of documentaries of Mongolian historical significance from the General Archives of the USSR and enriched its collection.
In 1990 the archive was expanded by the addition of 845 chapters of films from 1930-1940 on Mongolian history, which were acquired from Soviet film archives. In 1999 Dr. S. Damdinsuren (Professor) and J. Gerelbadrakh (Director of the State Central Archive) worked in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk to collect film footage of a parade held in Mongolia in 1936 to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the People’s Revolution. These historical documents are stored in the “Special Archival Fund” of the Archival Center.
Democracy has flourished in Mongolia since the 1990s, with people studying history, reading archival documents, and filmmakers making their own films, especially with the inspiration of old ones. In recent years, archival organizations have organized numerous exhibitions and public displays of archival documents in order to make them transparent, open, and accessible to the public.
The “Mongolian Film Archive HD” project, which has been implemented since 2012 in cooperation with Univision LLC, is a major work on the restoration and protection of archival film documents. The main goal of the project is to digitize, use and back up film documents such as feature, documentary films, and film news/magazines recorded on 35 mm film. Since this project started 92 feature films and 14 documentaries have been restored.
More information about the State Archival Center Of Film, Photography And Sound is available here.
For inquiries and copies please call (+976) 77002062.
To transfer films, photographs and audio recordings to the GENERAL ARCHIVAL AUTHORITY please call (+976) 77002092.