In an era where our cultural memory increasingly exists in digital form, finding meaningful ways to explore and interact with audiovisual archives has become a critical challenge. While flagship heritage institutions in the Global North (e.g. national archives) have the resources to develop sophisticated backend systems and bespoke software for managing their collections, they have dedicated less attention to front-end interfaces to make archives accessible for researchers and the general public. This situation is even more challenging for smaller organisations and community archives worldwide, which often lack the resources to implement basic digital access solutions.
To address these challenges, we are launching the Film Concierge project in 2025. This research aims to combine the power of large language models (LLMs) with human curation to create more accessible and meaningful ways of exploring audiovisual heritage. The project brings together key institutional support from the Netherlands Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds) and the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK), alongside a growing network of partners, including Eye Filmmuseum, Cineteca Nacional de Chile, and the University of Amsterdam.
What is the Film Concierge?
The Film Concierge is the name of a computer programme in development that seeks to combine the conversational capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) with the accuracy of structured databases to create a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system specialised in digital media collections. This system will enable users to explore audiovisual collections through conversations in natural language, where the AI acts as a knowledgeable guide that can discuss the content, context, and connections between different items in the collection. By grounding the LLM’s responses in human-annotated metadata and curatorial knowledge, the system aims to maintain accuracy while providing an engaging and intuitive interface to explore the collection.
The development of a tool like this responds to a pressing need in the cultural heritage sector, particularly as the digital age has transformed how we preserve and share our cultural memory. While commercial platforms like YouTube or Vimeo offer easy publishing solutions, many organizations hesitate to use them due to concerns about data sovereignty, algorithmic moderation, and loss of control over their materials. Small organizations particularly struggle, as accessible tools, open for reuse and adaptation, suitable for presenting their collections, have arguably seen little innovation since the emergence of blogs and open source content management systems in the early 2000s. The trend towards a more closed and proprietary Internet has further stifled the development of new, accessible solutions, creating a concerning situation where many community archives and smaller organizations are simply not presenting their collections at all. Even well-funded heritage institutions, despite having robust backend systems, often struggle to create user-friendly interfaces. Caught between inadequate tools and problematic commercial platforms, these organizations find themselves unable to share their valuable cultural heritage with their communities and the wider public.
A Local, Open Source, Artistic Solution
The Film Concierge takes a straightforward yet innovative approach to addressing these challenges. As an open-source solution in development, it will create an accessible way for archives to present their materials without requiring extensive technical expertise or infrastructure. The system will be optimised to work online or locally and function as a hybrid between a physical archive and an art installation. Considering its early development stage, the project will be designed for small collections or subcollections of up to 350 objects.
If this hasn’t been emphasised enough, one important principle that sets the Film Concierge apart from other AI-powered interfaces is its interest in maintaining human agency in the curatorial process. Rather than allowing AI to make autonomous decisions about content, the system will be designed to reflect and communicate human-annotated curatorial perspectives from structured datasets. Next to this, the project considers future developments towards a fully local implementation, addressing concerns about data privacy and energy consumption. Last, the project’s open-source ethos is an invitation to organisations to adapt the tool to their specific needs without purchasing software licenses but paying back to the community of users with improvements and further developments.
Researching by Making: The Agente MAFI
During 2025, the Film Concierge will be developed through practice-led research, using the Filmic Map of a Country (MAFI) collection as its case study. This unique chronicle of Chilean society (2011-2024), produced by the MAFI film collective, presents an ideal test case for several reasons. First, it holds significant historical value, documenting a crucial period in Chilean history marked by the birth of a “new left” that emerged from student movements in 2011 (the Frente Amplio coalition), followed by the 2019 Estallido Social or October Revolution, and the subsequent demise of this movement after a failed attempt to approve a new constitution- a period that may culminate in a conservative right-wing victory in the upcoming presidential elections. Second, the collection’s manageable size of approximately 300 short films makes it suitable for research purposes. Finally, MAFI’s pioneering approach to documentary language in the digital medium has been internationally recognized, as evidenced by its initial release at IDFA DocLab 2012 and its inclusion in MIT’s Docubase (Catalogue of Digital Documentary). Therefore the collective’s innovative spirit makes it an ideal case to be embraced by the Concierge’s emerging technology.
The Path Forward
While the aim of the project during 2025 is to produce a minimum viable product (MVP) or proof of concept for Film Concierge using the MAFI collection, we intend to continue working on the MAFI archive in 2026 to produce the first fully fledged implementation of the Film Concierge as an archive and art installation, which we call, as a working title, Agente MAFI. Imagine entering a dimly lit space equipped with a minimalist CPU and a screen projection where a voice introduces itself as the “MAFI concierge” and presents its curatorial perspective, engaging with various themes within the collection, from street demonstrations to government speeches and from traditional Indigenous ceremonies to touristic attractions, constantly adapting its focus based on the visitor’s curiosity.
For instance, a visitor keen on Chile’s recent political history may ask, “Tell me about the student protests of 2011,” and receive relevant films and contextual information about how these protests connected to later events like the 2019 Estallido Social. The concierge might suggest related materials, drawing unexpected connections between moments in Chile’s recent history, like a speech at the Constituent Assembly or a scene in a rural classroom where a child asks about the country’s republican formation.
A Human-Centered Digital Future
The Film Concierge proposes a framework for creative human-AI interaction in which AI systems are co-authors under human supervision, positioning the former as contributors to human-led culture and the latter as holders of intentionality. Rather than replacing or automating curatorial expertise, this approach seeks to demonstrate how technological innovation can amplify human vision while keeping cultural heritage firmly anchored in the public good, serving the development of a society more aware of its past and its diversity, with a stronger sense of identity, and equipped more a self-critical spirit.
In an age where AI technologies often threaten to distance us from our cultural memory, the Film Concierge suggests a different path – one where technology serves as a bridge between past and present, between archives and audiences, and between human curation and artificial intelligence.