Intimate and personal portrait of the Royal Belgian Cinémathèque (renamed CINEMATEK). And on that screen, flashes of the world, an idea of History, of beauty. On that screen, a congruent portion of humanity. I am what I have seen, said Matisse. But all images do not remain intact. And even less so, the self image. Time permeates them, spoils, martyrises them. And this delicate skin — this layer of nitrate — is the symptom. Archipels nitrate talks of cinema and time in the form of a visual symphony in which a hundred films partake in a unique journey.