Frame-by-frame: The Ephemeral Films Project

Abstract

The ‘Ephemeral Films Project: National Socialism in Austria’, completed in 2015, has preserved, analysed, and made accessible approximately 50 films related to the history of the Nazi period and the Holocaust in Austria. This open source, innovative web application utilises new technology to combine a frame-by-frame level of analysis with dynamic annotations that synchronously change as an historic film plays. Users can see a modern-day image of a building or the plotting of geographic locations on an interactive map. This project provides an opportunity to reexamine the relationships between film, history, historiography and technology.