Thiruvananthapuram will host major film conservation and restoration workshops


One of the greatest joys for a film buff is to find a print of an old classic in pristine quality, enjoying it in its original glory. But not much thought was given to film preservation until recently, so many old films have been lost. When filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur started a project to restore Aurobindo Thampu And KumattiHe had great difficulty finding surviving film material 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 to preserve, preserve and restore films. The foundation, which has trained over a hundred people in the art of preservation over the past decade, is now coming to Thiruvananthapuram for the 9th edition of its flagship training program – Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2024 – to be held at the Vallopilli Sanskarti Bhavan. 7 to 14 November.

Organized in partnership with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the workshop is open to applicants from around the world and will cover the full range of subjects and topics required to work in the field of audio-visual preservation. An international faculty of experts in the field is leading the session.

The curriculum will include both lectures and hands-on sessions on film, video, audio and digital preservation, film preservation and restoration, digitization, disaster recovery, cataloguing, paper and photograph preservation and programming. Collaborating institutions include big names in film, including the Martin Scorsese-led Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, British Film Institute, L’Imagine Retrovata, Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA), Cinemateca Portuguesa, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, Metropolitan Museum of Art of Art, New York, La Cinematheque de Toulouse and The Criterion Collection / Janus Films.

Movie is in recovery process

Movie recovery is in progress Photo credit: Special Arrangements

The workshop will also feature daily screenings of restored classics, including films by Usmane Semben, Sergei Parajanov, Buster Keaton, Jean-Pierre Melville, Federico Fellini and Shyam Benegal.

“We have always wanted to conduct our annual film conservation workshop in Kerala as it is home to some of the best movies 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 Film Academy and the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, but sadly 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 training and exposure to best practices in film preservation at the workshop, we will be able to accelerate this process,” said Mr. Dungarpur, who directed the acclaimed documentary. Celluloid Man On the life of legendary archivist PK Nair.

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



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