Magna Żmien

Image: Għaqda Mużikali Imperial collection
New students, Mellieħa Imperial Band Club, 1970

Preserving memories of Malta’s audiovisual heritage

During the twentieth century, the world began to capture events of everyday life on film and tape. The Maltese were no exception, recording moments of family life, society, language and identity on photographic film, 8mm film and audio-tape. Today these artefacts and their content have become part of our intangible heritage.

The Magna Żmien project was set up as a grassroots movement in 2017, advocating for the digitisation and preservation of these unique home audio-visual collections to form a community archive accessible to researchers and artists.

Magna Żmien set out to salvage Maltese memories that lay neglected and deteriorating on their original analogue carriers, freeing them from obsolete playback formats by converting them to digital files. By offering a free digitisation service to the public, we give individuals and communities access to previously lost images, sounds and narratives. This content is shared on our platforms and through our activities, preserving it for future generations, while being careful to credit and respect the wishes of the donor. We believe that all the material that we gather in our archive is part of our shared heritage, and that this heritage must be properly cared for.

Do you want to preserve your film, audio and photographs? Click the button to find out more!