FOCAL International to honour Bríd Dooley

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Industry press release from FOCAL

LONDON, 19 May 2022: The FOCAL International Lifetime Achievement Award is gifted by the FOCAL International executive board to an individual who has contributed to and supported the audiovisual archive industry within their career and through the body of their work.

We are delighted to announce the 2022 recipient is Head of Archives and Library services at RTÉ, Bríd Dooley.

Bríd Dooley will receive her award at the 2022 FOCAL Awards Gala Ceremony on 23 June 2022 at The Landmark Hotel in London. Bríd Dooley has dedicated her entire professional career spanning over 30 years to audiovisual archives.

A graduate of the University of Westminster, she first worked in the ITN Archives in London before moving to GMTV. After returning to Ireland, she joined the Irish National Public Service Broadcaster, RTÉ, to lead the station’s television archive project of 2000, before being appointed as Head of Archives and Library services in 2003.

Bríd was instrumental in creating a vibrant sales and licensing service, while in parallel pioneering a major project to deliver public access through online curation of the broadcast archives. Today the RTÉ Archives website connects with up to 4 million visitors annually.

Bríd served two terms as General Secretary of FIAT/IFTA from 2006- 2012, during which time she fostered stronger co-operation and dialogue within the CCAAA, Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archive Associations. She has been an active leader in devising the annual UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and the early promoter of the Save Your Archive initiative of FIAT/IFTA founded in London in 2012, which has since gone on to support a wide range of projects for global endangered archives. From 2016-2020 she led the FIAT/IFTA as President focusing on revitalising the network and its mission as well as re-designing the annual FIAT/IFTA Awards to recognise and showcase the professionalism and expertise of audiovisual specialists, a highlight of its annual conferences.

Bríd remains determined to ensure that audiovisual collections, and especially broadcast archives are championed, so that their precious content will be available for future generations as a valuable cultural resource and an essential component of the media sector in the creation of new and exciting stories. Bríd’s full biography is available here:

FOCAL International Stated:

We are so pleased to be able to honour Bríd Dooley with this prestigious award for her outstanding contribution and dedication to the audiovisual industry. We have great respect and admiration for her work that she has achieved through FIAT/IFTA and other organisation including protection of archives and highlighting the need for perseveration to safeguard content now and for future generations.

Brecht Declercq/ President of FIAT/IFTA / Digitisation & Acquisition Manager, meemoo commented:

Bríd Dooley’s career is characterized by an unstoppable entrepreneurship. With highly targeted initiatives, Bríd always tries to create real added value for audiovisual archives worldwide. For example, she was the instigator of the annual Timeline survey of FIAT/IFTA, as well as the driving force behind Save Your Archive, the aid program for endangered archives of FIAT/IFTA.

Almost imperceptibly, Bríd thus succeeds in achieving her goal; to give broadcasting archives the place they deserve. Precisely because in this way she has been able to do so much for media archives in Ireland and worldwide, this is an excellent moment to put her in the spotlight and be honoured with the FOCAL Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners: film director Julian Temple; pioneer film maker Gerry Weinburn and Emmy-nominated director-producer Serge Viallet

A full list of FOCAL International Awards 2022 shortlisted nominees is available at FOCAL

Further information please contact: Mary Egan mary@focalint.org / +44 (0) 7789 056661

 

About the FOCAL International Awards

Since their inception in 2004, the FOCAL International Awards have championed creativity, integrity and sustainability in screen culture. The FOCAL International Awards celebrate achievement in the use of footage in all variety of genres, across all media platforms plus accomplishments in film and television restoration work. The competition also recognises the researchers, technicians and producers that access, maintain and use this precious resource with Awards on the night for best archive researcher, footage company and individual as well as accomplishments in film and television restoration work. Further details on the awards available at focalint.org/awards. These awards are the leading and most complete set of awards for the archive footage industry in the world today.

FOCAL International are the Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries International. A not-for-profit trade association formed in 1985. FOCAL endeavours to support the international media archive community and advocate for best practice around the use of archive in the creative and cultural industries. Further information can be found at focalint.org

Image credit FOCAL