Read the blog

Our blog (http://archive.witness.org) includes news and updates about our activities, such as digitization, asset management, preservation, and  acqusitions, and discussion about topics we find relevant to our work: these include human rights archives, archivists and social justice, audiovisual archiving, social issue documentary, and more.

You can search the records for a selected portion of our holdings.  If you don't find what you need,  please contact us directly at mediaarchive@witness.org or 718-783-2000 x320.  We are more than happy to search the full collection, or assist you in your research.

Our Mission

The mission of the WITNESS Media Archive is to collect, document, preserve and provide access to audiovisual human rights media in the support of advocacy, prosecution of justice, truthtelling, and the historical record.  

The video collection comprises over 4000 hours of video from human rights defenders around the world.  Footage includes witness and victim testimonies, abuses caught on tape, interviews with key human rights defenders, evidentiary submissions, and footage of cultural events and daily life.  

Watch some of our videos on the Hub, or upload your own: WITNESS Media Archive on the Hub.  

Acquisitions

Most of the footage in our collection comes from the nongovernmental organizations with which we have partnered. However, WITNESS also accepts donations from vetted sources of video that will further human rights advocacy, the documentary record of human rights issues, or is in need of care and preservation because of its significance to the historical record. Please read our donor guidelines at www.witnessmediaarchive.org/donate for more information.

Facilities

Most of our collection is housed in a climate-controlled vault at WITNESS' Brooklyn, New York, offices, with preservation copies of selected footage stored offsite. We have a dual-system (NTSC & PAL), multi-format editing and duplication facility, with ability to transfer to BetaSP, miniDV, DVcam, VHS, and DVD formats.

Cataloging

In 2003-2004 WITNESS undertook the monumental task of cataloging the footage acquired since its inception in 1992. This projected entailed the development of the WITNESS Media Database, a Filemaker-Pro platform database, customized internally to address WITNESS' specific content and workflow needs. The requirements of human-rights documentation are complex and demand a high level of accuracy, specificity, and nuance in content descriptions and application of metadata.  All content summaries and data must be reviewed and edited for accuracy and context and, where necessary, mechanisms applied for maintaining the safety of videographers and subjects. As much as possible we employ shot-level descriptions of footage.

In-house thesauri of human-rights specific subject terms, names, and geographic locations are used to index each record. As of August 2008 approximately 90% of the collection has been fully or partially cataloged in the database.  Shotlists, transcripts, or scripts are available for approximately 60% of the cataloged titles.

Research

If you don't find what you are looking for, if you need further research assistance, or if you wish to inquire further about records you've retrieved, please contact us. The first half-hour of research is always free; research is billed at $50.00 per hour thereafter.

Preservation Activities

In 2004 the Archive received a grant via the Open Society Archives, one of the premier human rights archives in the world. With this seed funding we were able to deposit research copies of all WITNESS productions and a selection of our raw footage at the OSA at Central European University in Budapest. We were able to simultaneously duplicate this footage to Beta SP for storage in an offsite archival facility, generously donated by Corbis, Inc.

Because our raw footage originated on relatively fragile handicam formats - Video8, Hi-8, VHS-C, and miniDV - it is at risk merely from the passage of time. We are actively seeking funding to continue migrating our most valuable footage to a more stable format.

WITNESS Media Archive Facts and Figures

• Number of Video Titles: 4000+
• Number of items: 9000+
• Formats: Hi-8, miniDV, DVcam, VHS-C, BetaSP, DigiBeta, VHS, CD, DVD, DAT, Audio, Video-8.
• Standards: NTSC 70%, PAL 30%
• Raw footage: 80%
• WITNESS Productions: 14%
• Other: 6%

Supporters

The WITNESS Media Archive has been generously supported by Corbis, Inc., and the Open Society Archives at Central European University.

Contact Us

WITNESS Media Archive
80 Hanson Place 4^th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Email the Media Archive

Remote logging tool: Video / Audio Log & Transcription Form