Restored versions of classic films to be screened in Thiruvananthapuram

Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2024 to be organised in the city by Film Heritage Foundation

City residents will have an opportunity to watch restored versions of classic films as part of the Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2024 to be organised in the capital by the Film Heritage Foundation. The screenings will be held from November 8 to 14 at the Sree theatre from 6.30 p.m. onwards.

The films to be screened are Buster Keaton’s The General (1926), Ousmane Sembene’s Camp De Thiaroye (1988), Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), Shyam Benegal’s Manthan (1976), Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (1963) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai (1967). Though the workshops, which are to be held at the Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan, are for registered participants, the screenings of restored classics are open to the public.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the week-long workshop at a function to be held at the Golf Club on November 7 at 5 p.m. Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian, filmmaker Saeed Akhtar Mirza, actors Sheela and Jalaja, Chief Secretary Saradha Muraleedharan and others will participate. Film historian S. Theodore Baskaran will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the inaugural ceremony.

A total of 20 archivists and conservators from US, Italy, France and other countries will lead the workshop. The curriculum will include both lectures and hands-on sessions on film, video, audio and digital preservation, film conservation and restoration, digitisation, disaster recovery, cataloguing, paper and photograph conservation and programming.