Journal of Film Preservation
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Film Preservation Journal of Revue de la Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film 62 Revista de la Federación Internacional de Archivos Fílmicos 4/2001 Published by the International Federation of Film Archives Journal of Film Preservation N° 62 Film Preservation Around the World La conservation à travers le monde Conservación en el mundo 2 Fragile Heritage and Promising Outlook: Asian Film Archives Look Ahead While Looking Back Sam Ho 9 América Latina, Europa y Estados Unidos, relaciones triangulares en la historia del cine Paulo Antonio Paranaguá Cover: Kenji Mizoguchi, Taki no Shiraito (1933), by Courtesy of National Film Center/The 15 Film Archives of the National Archives of Zimbabwe National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo M.C. Mukotekwa 17 Lighting Out A Collective Past: to Find, Preserve and Research Flemish Non-fiction Films Daniel Biltereyst & Roel Vande Winkel Historical Column / Chronique historique Columna histórica 22 Nitrate Film Production in Japan: a Historical Background of the Early Days Hidenori Okada 25 The Novels and Rediscovered Films of Michel (Jules) Verne Brian Taves Documentation / Documentación 40 ‘What You Don’t See and Don’t Hear’: Subject Indexing Moving Images Olwen Terris Technical Column / Chronique technique Columna técnic 44 El Proyecto Madrid. Una investigación sobre la historia de la fabricación de película virgen para la conematografía The Madrid Project. Researching the History of Raw Stock Manufacture for Cinematography (page 51). Alfonso del Amo García April / avril / abril 2001 Journal of Film Preservation 57 The Digital Intermediate Post-Production Process in Europe Half-yearly / Semi-annuel Paul Read ISSN 1609-2694 Copyright FIAF 2001 Festivals / Festivales FIAF Officers 71 Gosfilmofond of Russia, Festival of Archival Films ‘Belye Stolby V’ President / Président Iván Trujillo Bolio 73 Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2000, Hillel Tryster Secretary General / Secrétaire général Roger Smither News from the Affiliates / Nouvelles des affiliés Treasurer / Trésorier Noticias de los afiliados Steven Ricci 77 MoMA Celebrates Silent Cinema, Steven Higgins Comité de Rédaction Editorial Board 80 Film Archiving at the National Film and Sound Archive, Chief Editor / Rédacteur en Chef ScreenSound Australia Robert Daudelin Members / Membres 82 Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona: New Member Mary Lea Bandy Paolo Cherchi Usai 84 Le fonds images animées du Musée Départemental Albert-Kahn Valeria Ciompi Jeanne Beausoleil & Jocelyne Leclercq-Weiss Claudia Dillmann Christian Dimitriu Publications / Publicaciones Michael Friend 88 Stéphanie Côté about W. K. L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson, Reynaldo González ‘History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kinetophonograph’ Steven Higgins Cynthia Liu 89 Roger Smither about the FIAF Nitrate Book: ‘This Film (Will Be) Steven Ricci Dangerous…’ Hillel Tryster Summaries 91 Valeria Ciompi about the ‘NO-DO, El tiempo y la memoria’: Eileen Bowser ‘El arroz con leche del General Franco’ Graphisme / Design Meredith Spangenberg 94 Publications Received at the Secretariat Imprimé / Printed / Impreso Publications reçues au Secrétariat Artoos - Bruxelles / Brussels Editeur / Publisher Publicaciones recibidas en el Secretariado Christian Dimitriu Editorial Assistant 96 FIAF Bookshop - Librairie - Librería Sonia Dermience Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film - FIAF rue Defacqz 1 1000 Bruxelles / Brussels Belgique / Belgium Tel (32-2) 538 3065 Fax (32-2) 534 4774 [email protected] Fragile Heritage and Promising Outlook: Asian Film Archives Look Ahead While Looking Back Sam Ho “I had the chance to shake the hands of many great directors,” says Okajima Hisashi. “It was exciting, but not as exciting as touching the original print of a Lumière Brothers film.” Okajima, Curator of Film at the National Film Center of Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art, is at a dinner of Asian archivists, who are in town for the official opening of the Hong Kong Film Archive and to attend a symposium held on January 8. Film archivists are a special breed. As Ray Edmondson, President of South East Asia/Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association, observes in the symposium, they love film. This must be the case or else they wouldn’t have put up with their always demanding work. But they also have to exercise their passion with control. That’s why Okajima is careful to point out that despite his excitement at touching the vintage celluloid, he didn’t leave any fingerprints. Challenges in the Archiving Journey Film archivists must express their love for film with control because they are at the front line of the battle to preserve the heritage of films. Cinema may have a glorious history, but its physical heritage is a fragile one. Since the introduction of projection cinema by the Lumière Brothers in 1895, the world has been playing a catch-up game with the deterioration of the stock on which images – and, later, sound too — are recorded. Initially though, the game was not of catch-up but of ridicule. Edmondson quotes a 1897 British newspaper report that raged against the inclusion of such early film treasures as The Prince’s Derby and The Beach at Brighton in the hallowed halls of the British Museum: “Seriously, does not the collection of rubbish become a trifle absurd?” Edmondson goes on to wittily characterize the emergence of film archives in Europe and North America three decades later as establishing “proper home(s)… for the rubbish bin.” The heritage of film in Asia is particularly fragile. For a long while, the garbage bins of Asian cinema were a homeless bunch, not so much because of snobbish rejection of a new and popular medium but simply due to indifference. While the West waited three decades before establishing archives, it took a lot longer for Asia to get going. The first film archives in the continent are the ones in Iran, China and India, launched respectively in 1949, 1958 and 1964. Japan, Film Preservation Around the World Film Preservation Around La conservation à travers le monde La conservación en el mundo 2 Journal of Film Preservation / 62 / 2001 perhaps the best among Asian nations in protecting its cultural heritage, did not start preserving films systematically until the 1970s, under the banner of the National Film Center. Here in Hong Kong, one of the most prolific film centers of the world, the call for a film archive wasn’t even made until the late 1970s. Not that the people of Hong Kong didn’t care about film – we did, in a big way, and still do — but we had more pressing matters on our mind than preservation. When the Hong Kong Film Archive was established in 1993 in the form of a Planning Office, it faced an uphill battle in playing catch-up. Belina Capul, Staff Director at the Motion Pictures Division of the Philippine Information Agency, tells the symposium audience that the Philippines does not even have a full- fledged film archive despite its long history of filmmaking. A national archive was indeed established in 1982 by the Marcos government, but after only three years, with the collapse of the despotic regime imminent, it was unceremoniously absorbed into the censorship department, the mandate of which is, of course, not preservation. The role of archiving is now left to the small and under-funded Society of Film Archivists (SOFIA) which is a coalition of concerned individuals. The Society, however, has no resources to carry out preservation tasks, serving mainly as a networking body and clearing house for activities. For the Term of His Natural Life, Political upheavals such as the overthrow of Marcos are Norman Dawn (1927), Documentation commonplace in Asia. In fact, the long and magnificent history of Collection, ScreenSound Australia film in Asia also coincides with a punishing history of turbulence in Asia. The continent in the 20th century was marked by world wars, civil wars, all kinds of political turmoil and violent economic ups and downs, none of which were favorable to the preservation of film. It doesn’t help that much of the area was also mired in various forms of colonial or authoritarian rules, which often imposed denials, if not outright distortions, of local histories. In Hong Kong, for example, the combination of a colonial government not eager to acknowledge the dubious origin of its rule and a people only too happy to forget what transpired, resulted in a willing negligence of its past. It wasn’t until the 1980s, A page of History, Hong Kong, 1924-27 with the rise of a search for identity, that the Hong Kong people rediscovered its history. Daunting Tasks Asian archives face daunting tasks once they are set up. With long- lasting and highly productive industries throughout the continent, a large number of films had been made. The late start of the 3 Journal of Film Preservation / 62 / 2001 Le patrimoine cinématographique de l’Asie preservation movement means huge quantities of cinematic treasures est fragile. Non pas que les Asiatiques have already been lost even before the archives begin looking for n’aiment pas le cinéma mais plutôt que son histoire correspond à celle d’une période de them. The severity of the situation is best illustrated by India, the “punition” et de turbulences sur le continent. most prolific film-producing country in the world. According to Lalit Les lois édictées tout au long du siècle par Kumar Upadhyaya, Director of India’s National Film Archive, an les différentes formes de colonialisme et average of 700 to 800 films are made annually, reaching a peak of d’autoritarisme n’ont fait que nier et même imposer une dénégation des histoires locales. 948 a few years ago. Without a legal deposit system, a substantial Les archives mises en place tardivement percentage will meet no other fate than being lost forever. Take the doivent affronter une tâche titanesque. Le silent era, for example. About 1,300 films were made in India mouvement de conservation lancé between 1913 and 1931.