Thiruvananthapuram to host major film preservation and restoration workshop

One of the biggest joys for a film buff would be to come across a print of an old classic in pristine quality, to savour it in its original glory. But not much thought was given to preserving films until recently that a good number of old films have been lost by now. When filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur embarked on a project to restore Aravindan’s Thampu and Kummatty, he faced quite a lot of difficulty in finding surviving film elements in decent condition to work with.

One of the biggest joys for a film buff would be to come across a print of an old classic in pristine quality, to savour it in its original glory. But not much thought was given to preserving films until recently that a good number of old films have been lost by now. When filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur embarked on a project to restore Aravindan’s Thampu and Kummatty, he faced quite a lot of difficulty in finding surviving film elements in decent condition to work with.

The dire state of film preservation in India led Dungarpur to set up the Film Heritage Foundation in 2014, for the conservation, preservation and restoration of films. The Foundation, which has over the past decade trained around hundreds in the art of preservation, is now coming to Thiruvananthapuram with the 9th edition of its flagship training programme - Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2024 - to be held at the Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan from November 7 to 14.

The workshop being organised in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), is open to applicants from all over the world and will cover the complete range of the issues and topics required to work in the field of audio-visual preservation. An international faculty of experts in the field is leading the sessions.

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. The collaborating institutions include big names in the world of cinema including Martin Scorsese-led Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, British Film Institute, L’Immagine Ritrovata, Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA), Cinemateca Portuguesa, Fondation Jerome Seydoux – Pathe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, La Cinematheque de Toulouse and The Criterion Collection / Janus Films.

The workshop will also have daily screenings of restored classics including films of Ousmane Sembene, Sergei Parajanov, Buster Keaton, Jean-Pierre Melville, Federico Fellini and Shyam Benegal.

“We have always wanted to conduct our annual film preservation workshop in Kerala as it is the home of some of the finest cinema that has been produced in India over the years. It is a State that has a deep love for cinema and two major film institutions, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, but sadly it does not have a film archive to preserve its incredible film heritage. Kerala should have its own State film archive to preserve Malayalam film heritage and we hope that through the training and exposure to the best practices of film preservation at the workshop, we will be able to set this process in motion,” says Mr.Dungarpur, who directed the acclaimed documentary Celluloid Man on the life of legendary archivist P.K.Nair.

Participants will receive a certificate from FIAF on completion of the course. The workshop aims to equip participants with knowledge on the basic tools to preserve and digitise audio-visual material and provide a wider understanding of issues related to preservation. They will also become a part of a collaborative network of archivists involved in preserving cultural and cinematic heritage. The registration for the workshop has been completed, with around 30 participants from Kerala.