cinemateca brasileira is an institution located in vila mariana, são paulo, responsible for the preservation of brazilian audiovisual production. centered on activities involving the storing, diffusion, and the restoration of its collection, it is one of the largest film libraries in latin america and also one of its oldest, established in 1949 in the film department of the modern art museum of são paulo. it became a government institution in 1984 when it was incorporated into the ministry of culture. there are about 200,000 rolls of film, long, short and newsreels; 120,000 were reported in 1996 but it has since grown markedly. it also has a large collection of documents, books, journals, original scripts, photographs and posters. the website of cinemateca brasileira is one of the most authoritative sources on brazilian cinema.