There has been an incredibly exciting film restoration news story that has broken over the last few days; the Indian Government has announced plans to restore 2,500 films, of which 1,450 are silent, at a cost of around $140 million.
This is a far bigger story than the news of 75 films being found in New Zealand and sent to America for restoration - yet all I have been able to find so far in regards to this story in the British and American media is a few paragraphs on the story in The Telegraph.
The Times of India provides us with more substantial details (for those interested in converting the numbers, a crore is 10 million):
Great celluloid classics like Mrinal Sen's `Antareen', Mani Kaul's `Nazar' and Bimal Roy's `Do Dooni Char' will soon come alive in their pristine glory under the National Film Heritage Mission.
The Mission, being established by the I&B ministry with a corpus of Rs 660 crore, will digitise, restore and preserve prints from films belonging to not just the National Film Archives but also the Children's Film Society of India, Films Division and NFDC.
Significantly, rare archival footage and documentaries on leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and others associated with the freedom movement, that have decomposed due to neglect or wear and tear, will also be restored and digitised.
The scheme envisages preservation of the invaluable film heritage of the country that is presently lying with various government agencies and private bodies in the country. Sources said that the authorities have now been tasked with preparing a detailed project report.
The Films Division plans to restore a total of 2,500 films, of which 1,450 belong to the `silent era' and 200 that are on video format. Shockingly, there are almost 200 films (400 reels of 4,000 minutes' duration) that have decomposed due to fungal infection and will require digital restoration at a cost of Rs 30 crore.
1,450 silent films - that is earth-shattering, ground breaking news. How many silent films have in survived in total, surely this gargantuan restoration process will provide a substantial addition to the silent film oeuvre? And how many Indian silent films exist?
The non-fiction footage of the great Indian leaders is another mouth watering prospect. I wish we could have more specific details in regards all the films that they plan to restore, but that would require 2,500 separate entries!
The only saddening news is the fact that 4,000 minutes of film have decomposed to due to fungal infection. That is pretty shocking to hear, I hope that this is not a problem shared by other countries. Even if Governments/Film Organisations are not restoring certain films, they should at least store them in a safe manner.
India Glitz adds some further details, as well as highlighting what appears to be U-turn in policy from the Indian government in regards to film preservation:
The scheme envisages preservation of the invaluable film heritage of the country that is presently lying with various government agencies and private bodies in the country. Sources said that the authorities have now been tasked with preparing a detailed project report. Restoration can be an expensive process with a single film running up a cost of Rs 8 lakh-Rs 10 lakh. Added to that is the cost to digitise films so that they can be seen and used by generations to come. "It is a major challenge to use technology that will allow us to use digitally restored material for commercial purposes. We also hope to webcast digitised and restored films," the source said.
NFAI that has a collection of 6,000 films has already restored 48 films and digitised 148 others in 2009-2010.
Besides some efforts by Doordarshan and NFAI, the government involvement in archival of films has so far been minimal. Some films have been restored by producers or major production houses as people realise the importance of preserving visual history. But in most cases producers do not see the immediate value of either providing the Archives with a copy of the master print or preserving their own films because of a general lack of awareness and resources.
I would hypothesise that as the Indian economy continues to grow at a considerable rate, the Indian government is attempting to follow America's lead and establish itself as both an economic and cultural superpower. This restoration process will retroactively assert Indian cinema as a cinematic force that has rivalled America's dominance of the medium from the early silent days (we should not forget that before World War One, French Cinema was the dominant force of cinema). In an ideal world, this would set off a classic and silent film preservation race (as opposed to an arms race!) and we would see various countries deciding to restore all of the great films that are lying in their vaults. Film goers of the world unite!
My posts are rarely as hyperbolic and exclamation mark ridden as this, but I am genuinely gob smacked at the enormity of this news. I am also saddened that it has as yet received little if no coverage in the British and American press. News reporting has become increasingly globalised over the last twenty years, yet film reporting remains Hollywood-centric.
Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish
Posts
