Cinema in focus: Make a career out of saving India’s film heritage
Indians love their cinema and are very proud of their rich and varied film history. But few know that very little remains of our cinematic heritage and that we continue to lose films, both classic and contemporary every day.
This should be considered a national cultural emergency, one that needs to be tackled on a war footing requiring an army of trained film archivists.
However, while we find aspiring filmmakers and struggling actors with dreams in their eyes joining the ranks of the film industry every day, film preservation has never been considered a serious career option.
This is partly because there has been a terrible lack of awareness about the need to preserve our films apart from the lack of prestigious courses in India to train people in this field. In addition, till a few years ago, India had just one film archive. World over, countries have several film archives, both government and private, that provide viable employment opportunities in film archiving and restoration.
Many young people passionate about cinema choose the route of film preservation and restoration to explore their love for film.
Film preservation is not just a job. It requires passion and commitment and in the case of restoration is as much an art as making a film. It could be an exciting career opportunity for those who wish to combine creativity with a love for film and preserving its history for posterity.
With this in mind, Film Heritage Foundation organises the film preservation and restoration workshop every year to train an indigenous pool of film archivists and restorers.
The week-long course aims to provide participants an overview of film archiving with hands-on training in film handling, repair and preparation; photograph and paper conservation; film identification and scanning; film comparison, digital restoration as well as colour correction.