Summary heading
Film, video and sound recordings recorded by the Australian
Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)
Function and purpose
This series consist of film, video and sound recordings in
various formats recorded by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
(ASIO) for a number of purposes since 1949.
The cine films include surveillance footage of events
including:
* National Congresses and committee meetings of the
Communist Party of Australia
* Meetings of the Eureka
Youth League
* May Day and Labour Day marches
* Australian Soviet Friendship Society congresses
* The founding conference of the Revolutionary Socialist
Alliance
* Meetings of the Waterside Workers Federation
The material also covers surveillance of individuals at
various locations including:
* The Hands Off Cuba demonstration, Melbourne 1962
* Bondi Junction, NSW
* Manly Corso, NSW
* Taronga Park
Zoo, NSW
The material was recorded for a variety of purposes,
including training films, and for the 1954 Royal Commission on Espionage
(CA1882)
Related legislation
Using the series
Language of material
Physical characteristics
This series includes motion picture film and a set of VHS
copies produced by the agency. Whilst in the custody of the NAA, the original
VHS were copied as digital files. The films were copied onto Digital Betacam
tape and VHS formats.
The Digital Betacam copies were copied further to VHS and DVD,
while the digital files were copied to DVD copies.
A number of the NAA holdings of VHS created by ASIO have
been compared to their film counterparts and it is apparent that they are
copies of the films - not unique material in their own right. These copies are
of very poor quality and are not always complete versions of the film content.
More comparisons between the films and the VHS should be made; when the
original film is available (and able to be copied) it should supersede these
VHS. However, when no film item exists of a production these VHS should then be
regarded as containing unique content.
System of arrangement and control
The most common format for the control symbols is '32/1/*'
(eg: 32/1/78). This extra number usually (though not always) delineates various
components of the film (reversal, negative, release print etc) but on occasion
it is used to separate out various elements of a production (eg: day 1, day 2,
day 3) - Though this is the exception rather than the rule.
The film items also commonly have a volume attached eg.
32/1/23 Volume 1 originally appearing as 32/1/23.1.
Additionally a small number of items have alpha numeric
control symbols or single numbers. This is due to NAA imposing control symbols
on the first consignment received from ASIO and further information on this can
be found in the A8703 Series notes on RecordSearch.
Dates as they appear in item titles have been standardised from various formats
(ie 1.1.1970; 1/1/70 etc) to Numeric Day Month Numeric Year, ie 1 January 1900.
In the cases of organisation and state abbreviations they
have been standardised to appear as the full expansion followed by the
abbreviation in square brackets eg.
Communist Party of Australia
[CPA], Eureka Youth League [EYL], South Australia [SA]
Relationships with other records
C5431 contains reference copies of Video, Digital File and
DVD formats. There is a duplicate set of reference copies held in the ACT.
Finding aids
Access conditions
Series history
Provenance
Immediate source of acquisition
Custodial history
Quantity in agency custody
Disposal history
Publication note
Additional information
End notes
Sources