inside the Koothambalam (Temple Theatre) At Vayalopalli Sanskriti Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, Mariana De Sanctis takes a closer look at an old film reel, using cleaning agents and tapes to return it to its former glory. All around him are students ranging in age from 20 to 50, the latest entrants into the emerging field of film restoration.

De Sanctis – who wrote Malayalam writer G. Worked on restoring Aravindan’s classics Thampu (1978) and Kummatti (1979) – Got into film restoration two decades ago because of her love of silent cinema. “A large part of the heritage of silent cinema was destroyed because it was printed on nitrate, which is quite fragile and destroys over time,” says De Sanctis, who runs Italy’s renowned film restoration laboratory L’Imagine. Head of film repair at Retrovita. , “There are around 70-80 people in our laboratory working on various aspects of the restoration. Every year, we manage to restore around 80 films from all over the world. Currently, he is set to restore leading filmmaker John Abraham’s crowd-funded classic. Amma Aryan (1986).

De Sanctis was one of the many experts from countries like the US, UK, France and Portugal who were part of the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF)’s Film Conservation and Restoration Workshop India 2024. Earlier this month, the ninth edition of the Yatra Workshop was held. This also happens to be its last. In 2025, the foundation is set to open the Center of the Moving Image in Mumbai, which will house an archive, research center and year-round training facility.

Film Conservation and Restoration Workshop in India 2024 Photo Courtesy: CR Narayanan

Repair, Restore, Repeat

This year saw a flurry of re-releases of mainstream hit films from recent decades to near-full houses. However, titles restored from regional languages ​​often do not attract as much attention. But the FHF has quietly gone about its work of generating public interest in the art of film preservation and training a new generation of technicians. For almost a decade, it has been relentlessly tracking down the last surviving prints of some of the best independent cinema India has produced, and painstakingly restoring them frame by frame. Some of its important restoration works like Thampu And Shyam Benegal’s churn (1976) also premiered at Cannes in the last few years.

from still Thampu
Photo Courtesy: The Hindu Archives

The week-long workshop included lectures and practical sessions on film, video, audio and digital preservation, film conservation and restoration, digitization, disaster recovery, cataloging and more. And many participants came with specific plans. CP Thushara from the National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka participated with fellow technicians to understand the cutting-edge techniques of preservation. Their presence is part of the France-India-Sri Lanka Cine Heritage Initiative run by the FHF and the French Embassy. Back home, the technicians will start restoring the classic Sinhala film Wheat Lamai (1978) by Sumitra Peries.

Étienne Marchand from the Institut National de l’Audiovisual | Photo Courtesy: CR Narayanan

Huzaifa, 52, faculty of videography and caretaker of the archives at Aljamia-tus-Saifiyah in Surat, Gujarat, had come to learn how to preserve the institution’s old materials. “Our university is 200 years old. It has a vast collection of educational films, photographs and audio dating back decades. We are trying to learn how to preserve these as well as restore things that were considered lost,” he says.

Another group from the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, which has recently started restoring Malayalam classics, was there to better their understanding of conservation. Recently, the Academy recovered prints of over 100 films from the state public relations department office, where they were stored after they were sent for consideration for the Kerala State Film Awards. The headlines also included PN Menon’s Olavam Theeravam (1970), Adoor Gopalakrishnan bill (1994) and KG George Yavanika (1982).

from still bill

Rewinding the classics

It is fitting that the traveling school made its last stop in Thiruvananthapuram, the city of PK Nair, the pioneer of archival in India and the founder of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in 1964. Incidentally, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who founded FHF in 2014, started his journey in film preservation celluloid manIt is a poignant documentary on his mentor Nair’s efforts to preserve India’s cinematic heritage.

“In the last decade, we have managed to train more than 400 people in the art of film restoration and conservation,” says Dungarpur, who is also the festival director of MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. , Manipur and Odisha and has helped establish many small archives in the country. But there is still a lot of work to be done as 95% of our cinematic heritage is at risk.” Last month at MAMI, the foundation renovated Girish Kasaravalli disbelief (Kannada, 1977) and Oriya film Maya MirigaNirad N. Films directed by Mohapatra were screened. Dungarpur plan to add more to the roster in the next edition. Next month, five restored films will be shown at the Kolkata International Film Festival: churn, disbelief, Maya Miriga, Thampu and manipuri film ishanauDirected by Aribam Syam Sharma.

from still disbelief
Photo courtesy: Courtesy of Information Department

Restoring a single film can take months or years, depending on the quality of the prints available. While the restoration of Thampu This work took two years Maya Miriga Spread over three years. The cost of restoration can range from ₹35 lakh to ₹50 lakh, and sometimes even more.

A scene from Maya Miriga Photo Credit: Courtesy Film Heritage Foundation

“Compared to the West, we started our restoration journey after 50 years. Almost every global organization works in this field with government support. However, this is not the case in India,” says Dungarpur. “One of our major goals is to restore films from different parts of the country instead of focusing only on Bollywood.” And if screenings of restored classics are anything to go by, there’s an audience for these forgotten gems.