Film Preservation Workshop Returns to India After COVID Hiatus
Patrick Frater 11/13/2022A seventh edition of the Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India is to be held Dec. 4-10, 2022, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay museum in Mumbai.
The seven-day workshop designed by David Walsh, training and outreach coordinator at the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), will include theory and practical group sessions in the best practices of the preservation and restoration of celluloid and digital films and film-related material like paper, photographs, and 3D objects.
There will also be daily screenings of restored classics from around the world screened at Regal Cinema, Mumbai. These include “Behula,” a 1921 Indian silent film starring Patience Cooper, that plays on the big screen for the first time. Others include “A Hard Day’s Night,” (1964), “Raging Bull” (1980), “In The Mood For Love” (2000), “Il Conformista” (1970) and “Thamp” (1978).
The event is backed by the Film Heritage Foundation in partnership with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation and FIAF, in association with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. The FHF’s activities complement those of the Indian government’s National Film Archive of India.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be back after a gap of almost three years due to the pandemic with the 7th edition of our film preservation and restoration workshop – in-person, hands-on and at an advanced level. It’s been a monumental task to put the workshop together this year with very limited resources and climbing costs. But we knew we had to make up for the lost time and the lost momentum that we built up over six years travelling around the country and training over 300 people in India and the neighboring countries,” said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director, Film Heritage Foundation. “Our workshops have had a tremendous impact and are crucial for building up a pool of archivists to save our film heritage.”
Variety