Archipanion for the Schweizer Filmwochenschau
Archipanion uses AI to search for visual content in the Schweizer Filmwochenschau (1940–1975). A descriptive search for scenes or text in the reports complements the traditional archive search.
The Swiss Weekly Newsreel, Schweizer Filmwochenschau which was shown before the main feature in Swiss cinemas from 1940 to 1975, reached 1,651 editions with a total running time of around 200 hours, making them a rich audiovisual source on post-war Switzerland and “intellectual defence of the nation”. The reports, on topics such as politics, culture, science, technology, sport and entertainment, were broadcast in German, French and Italian.
Archipanion’s visual search function allows users to search for scenes or depicted text in the entire Schweizer Filmwochenschau archive, and so find content through exploration (Online Access: J2.143*#20). In addition to the text-based, descriptive search, Archipanion also lets users discover visually similar content within the collection.
Archipanion, a service by 4eyes GmbH, is based on vitrivr, a research project of the Databases and Information Systems Group at the University of Basel, which has been conducting research into information extraction from multimedia content for many years. It enables us to use the latest AI research findings directly for searches in the archives.
Tips for further research
- Article on the Schweizer Filmwochenschau in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in German, French and Italian)
- Film holdings of the Swiss Film Newsreels (1940–1975) at Memobase