News Detail
Euromed Audiovisual
Seminar on Restoration and Conservation of films in the Mediterranean
15 10 2007
Representatives from the major cultural institutions and film archives of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, together with European experts, representatives of the European Commission and the Bologna Cinematheque will meet to discuss the current state of film archives in Europe and in the Mediterranean. A roundtable discussion will be dedicated to the prevailing situation in the various MEDA countries. Participants will focus on: the importance of protecting cinema heritage from a historical, artistic and methodological perspective, archiving policies and programmes to manage film libraries, and the possibility of establishing a network of Mediterranean Film Archives.
Several countries in the Mediterranean boast a longstanding film heritage, including Egypt, where the Lumière brothers organised film screenings in cafes in Cairo and Alexandria as early as 1896, and Israel, with the largest film archive in the Middle East (holding around 50 thousands prints in film and video, including a copy and a negative of the first motion picture footage of the Holy Land shot by the Lumière brothers in 1895). Also significant is the Yesilcam or Turkish film industry, which was one of the world’s largest industries during the 1950s through to the 1970s, producing more than 250-300 films annually. Or Algeria, which in 1975, with only 20 million inhabitants counted 40 million cinemagoers. Surprising it may seem, Bogart and Bergman never went to Casablanca. But more than 500 movies have been filmed in Morocco, as far back as 1897 when Louis Lumière made Le Chevalier Marocain. The Lebanon, on the other hand, has had commercial studio facilities for years while Syria is one of the few Arab countries to have had indigenous production since the beginning (1928) and to host a regular film festival.
There is an urgent need for action to preserve this heritage. Motion pictures of all types are deteriorating rapidly. Fewer than 20% of the features made in the 1920s survive in complete form. “Safety film”, the cellulose-acetate medium to which volatile nitrate films have been transferred, suffers from its own form of decay, the so-called “vinegar syndrome”. Fuelling the preservation crisis is the fading of colour films from the last 40 years.
An intensive two-day training session is being dedicated to technicians participating in the workshop and will introduce methodologies and techniques for analogue and digital picture and sound restoration.
In conjunction with the holding of the workshop, the Cinema Lumière of the Bologna Cinematheque, will host screenings of several significant films of past and present Mediterranean cinema including: Making Off, le dernier film by Nouri Bouzid -Tunisia, 2006; Wedding in Galilee by Michel Kleifi –Palestinian Authority, 1987; Bab El Makam - Passion by Mohamed Malas - Syria, 2005; and Alyam Alyam by Ahmed Al Maanouni - Morocco, 1978.
Film Archives In the Mediterranean is organised by Euromed Audiovisual II and by the Bologna Cinematheque, one of the largest cinematheques in Europe.
