TVM set to host workshop on film restoration; Scorsese, Kamal, Bachchan highlight its relevance

Thiruvananthapuram: The 9th edition of the Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2024 (FPRWI 2024) will be held from November 7 – 14, 2024 at Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram. The Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) is organising the programme in association with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). Applications have been invited from those who wish to attend the seven-day workshop. The programme will cover the complete range of the issues and topics required to work in the field of audio-visual preservation. Participants will receive a certificate from FIAF on completion of the course. The curriculum will include both lectures and hands-on sessions on film, video, audio and digital preservation, film conservation and restoration, digitization, disaster recovery, cataloguing, paper and photograph conservation, programming, among others. Classes will be followed by daily evening screenings of restored films from around the world.

The faculty include experts from premier institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, British Film Institute, L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, Institute National de l’Audiovisuel, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé and Cineteca Portuguesa. Those who wish to participate in the programme can download the application form and get details from this website . Those who are not able to download the application form due to any technical reasons may access it from FIAF website or by sending a request email to: fprwi2024@gmail.com The deadline for submitting the application form: Wednesday, September 25, 2024.

Legendary actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan, who is the advisor to FHF, has urged people who care about the future of our film heritage to apply for FPRWI 2024. “This unique and much-needed training initiative has created awareness about the urgent need to preserve our film heritage, while training a resource of film archivists to take up this challenge not just in India, but around the world. The world has lost a vast amount of our film heritage and we need an army of archivists to preserve our cinematic legacy and also work to save the films of today and tomorrow,” he said in a video message.

Scorsese hails Malayalam films
Eminent filmmaker Martin Scorsese, the founder and chair of the Film Foundation expressed happiness over Kerala hosting the event. “Some of the most remarkable pictures I’ve seen have come out of Kerala, whose cinematic heritage includes the work of Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Aravindan Govindan. The World Cinema Project, an arm of The Film Foundation devoted to the restoration, preservation and dissemination of films from around the world, recently restored two of Govindan’s films, Kummatty and Thamp, in partnership with Film Heritage Foundation,” he said. Film Heritage Foundation’s founder and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur said they 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.

“Kerala’s rich film heritage is in danger of vanishing if we don’t take urgent steps to preserve it. 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,” he said.

Film preservation about future: Bachchan
Legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, the cause ambassador of Film Heritage Foundation said despite its incredibly rich and artistic cinematic legacy, Kerala does not have an archive to preserve their precious film heritage. “As Malayalam cinema continues to make waves around the world, I hope that the film fraternity, cinephiles and the government will remember that film preservation is about the future – saving yesterday and today’s films for tomorrow – and that this workshop holds the key to that door to the future,” Bachchan said.

Time to test digital film’s longevity: Adoor
Renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said: “It is proven that the optical film has survived for more than a century and beyond under controlled humidity and heat. The digital film’s longevity is a matter of faith and belief yet to be verified by real experience over a length of time. Those who wish a longer life for their films should have them transferred to celluloid scientifically, using modern methods of preservation. The workshop planned will equip and empower the motivated.”