The Film Heritage Foundation is offering an intensive course, including hands-on training, in the latest techniques of film preservation and restoration, from February 22 to 28, 2015, at Films Division, Mumbai.
India produces the largest number of films worldwide, over 1,700 films a year in 32 languages, but its record of film archiving and preservation is abysmal. Of the 1,700 Indian silent films, only five or six complete films survive today. By 1950, we had lost 70-80 per cent of our films, including the first talkie Alam Ara.
To date, no full-fledged film restoration has been done in India, with classics like Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948) and Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) restored by experts overseas.
The course is the first step in the Film Heritage Foundation’s long-term goal to create an indigenous resource of film archivists and restorers that will work towards saving India’s cinematic heritage.
The course is being held in collaboration with the Martin Scorsese-founded Film Foundation, the World Cinema Project, Cineteca Di Bologna, and L’immagine Ritrovata.
The Film Foundation was established by Scorsese as a non-profit to protect and preserve motion picture history. It has saved more than 600 films and its board includes filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Woody Allen, Ang Lee, and more.
The World Cinema Project is a Film Foundation programme for preserving and restoring neglected films from around the world. The Fondazione Cineteca Di Bologna works with archival conservation and restoration, while L’immagine Ritrovata is a highly specialised film restoration laboratory that has restored films of Chaplin, Renoir, Fellini, Jacques Tati, Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Leone, and Ritwik Ghatak.
The course faculty will include experts from Cineteca di Bologna and the Film Foundation, and filmmakers and guest lecturers from around the world. Forty students from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan will be selected on merit. There will be daily sessions from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. over 7 days, including screenings, lectures and practical lessons. Course content will include modules on film comparing, film repair, film scanning, digital restoration, colour correction, sound restoration and film mastering. Participants will be awarded with a certification as the school is internationally recognised by FIAF (The International Federation of Film Archives).
Application forms will be available online on the following websites from September 15, 2014: >www.filmheritagefoundation.co.in , >www.film-foundation.org , >www.cinetecadibologna.it , and >www.immagineritrovata.it
