Alarm over Film Museum archive after new storage site floods

The Buenos Aires film community sounded the alarm on Wednesday after heavy rain flooded the new storage facility of the Pablo Ducrós Hicken Film Museum in Parque Patricios, putting part of its non-film archive at risk.

Books, magazines, documents, and posters were among the materials affected after water overflowed inside the building on Amancio Alcorta Avenue, where the first stage of the museum’s relocation had only recently been completed. 

The Friends of the Film Museum Association, an advocacy institution independent from the city government, posted videos of the flood on Instagram, showing museum workers trying to salvage wet cardboard boxes filled with museum content.

“We share our deep concern over the conditions at the new site of the Buenos Aires Film Museum, located on Amancio Alcorta Avenue,” they wrote. 

“Following the first phase of moving the non-film archive and library, this is the current situation — before unpacking has even begun. We expect the city will take urgent action on the matter,” they added.

A moving collection The museum hasn’t had an official building of its own since its foundation in 1971. Last June, its renowned director, archivist, and historian Paula Félix Didier was ousted by city authorities, a decision that sparked outcry among the film community.

The museum, which has its main exhibition and film theater in Agustín Caffarena 51, had begun to move its collection out of a building on Paseo Colón avenue in La Boca.

“When we learned that the collection had to be moved from Paseo Colón, we warned about the need to have a building with the proper requirements, given the type of information it holds and the kind of heritage it preserves,” association secretary Dr. María Valdez told the Herald.

“We found out that the new building on Amancio Alcorta didn’t have the proper conditions. It’s a sort of warehouse. The Association met with the authorities to review this situation, and we were guaranteed that the building met the requirements, and we in good faith trusted that,” added Valdez, a university professor and expert in Latin American and Argentine cinema.

The relocation process, which Valdez describes as “somewhat disorganized,” was scheduled to begin by the end of September. Instructions were to pack everything in the Paseo Colón building — including photographs, set design materials, and the library — and have it ready for relocation between September 22 and October 5. 

“But on September 29, museum employees received an order to vacate the building within 48 hours. So, our understanding is that the Amancio Alcorta building had not undergone all the basic modifications needed,” said Valdez.

The official explanation “Due to heavy rainfall [on Tuesday], a drainage sump failed to operate correctly, causing water to overflow into the main warehouse of the new site,” the city confirmed in a short statement. 

Footage of the film museum’s boxed collection lying on a flooded warehouse was quickly shared by members of the local film community.

“After moving the Buenos Aires Film Museum for the thousand times to a new building, we’re in the much-feared hell is here. The one thing that shouldn’t happen: it’s flooded,” wrote filmmaker and former Buenos Aires Film Festival director Sergio Wolf on Instagram.

The new facility, owned by art entrepreneur Andrés Buhar and rented to the city for AR$68,875,000 (roughly US$45,000), is currently undergoing renovations, construction, and fit-out work “to adapt workspaces and ensure the preservation of heritage assets with the necessary safeguards,” according to the statement. 

The city added that the flooding problem was “immediately solved.”

“What they did was take everything that was on the flooded ground floor upstairs to the second floor,” said Valdez, adding that the actual state of the collection hasn’t been reported yet.

“We still don’t know the extent of the damage.”