Workshop to uphold cinematic heritage in India
Film preservation and conservation is crucial to saving the cinematic heritage of India
A Film Preservation and Restoration workshop is to be held in southern Indian city of Chennai.
As film preservation and restoration becomes a crucial aspect to maintain cinematic heritage, India is set for an extensive workshop aimed at the same. The Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2017 (FPRWI 2017), in its third edition, is set to be held in Chennai for a week from October 7. Earlier this week, Viacom 18, a major Indian entertainment and media house extended their support to this workshop in its press meet. South Indian film industry veterans attended this, where they raised concerns over India’s current situation in keeping its cinematic legacy safe.
The third edition of the Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2017 (FPRWI 2017), a seven-day workshop from October 7. Being held in the southern part of India this year, this workshop was held in Mumbai and Pune earlier. The workshop is being organised by Film Heritage Foundation and The International Federation of Film Archives along with several international partners, in Prasad film Laboratories. Even as this workshop aims at bringing attention to preservation of cinematic heritage in India by training film archivists and restorers, it is also looking to include participants from neighbouring South Asian countries Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Sudhanshu Vats, Viacom 18’s Group CEO shared at the press meet, “India’s culture and heritage are captured creatively and reflected through our films and these, therefore, become historical artefacts representative of the times they were created in. It is pertinent that this content is preserved for reference as well as archived for perusal by future generations.” Mani Ratnam, a senior director added to the thought, “For a country which is making so many films, we are just starting to think about preserving and restoring it, which is an art. A written word gets preserved in so many forms. But movies which comprise of both audio and visuals have to be done with care and a lot more details.”
Actor and producer Kamal Haasan, who was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres last year, lauded the effort of the upcoming workshop, “The film industry should come forward to conserve, save and keep our film heritage intact. And this very important workshop is going to teach future archivists how to go about preserving film. It’s a very important workshop for those interested in cinema itself, cinema not only of today but of yesterday.”
Global expertise
As India makes low scale efforts for digitisation of films to be conserved and also lacks expertise by local archivists, the workshop is set to rope in experts from across the globe for the workshop in hopes of transforming the current situation in the country. Dawn Jaros from The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts & Sciences, Marianna De Sanctis from L’ImmagineRitrovata, Bologna, Tina Kelly from Imperial War Museum and Emilie Cauquy from La Cinémathèquefrançaise are amongst the faculty of the workshop.
#KamalHaasan Kamal Hassan,Manirathnam at the Film Heritage Foundation Workshop partnered by Viacom18 to preserve old classics@diamondbabu4 pic.twitter.com/fipdufHbn8
— r.s.prakash (@rs_prakash3) July 27, 2017
