INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

The film’s director, Usmar Ismail, is generally considered to be the father of Indonesian cinema, and his entire body of work was directly engaged with ongoing evolution of Indonesian society. He began as a playwright and founder of Maya, a drama collective that began during the years of Japanese occupation. And it was during this period when Ismail developed an interest in filmmaking. He began making films for Andjar Asmara in the late 40s and then started Perfini (Perusahaan Film Nasional Indonesian) in 1950, which he considered his real beginning as a filmmaker. Lewat Djam Malam, a co-production between Perfini and Djamaluddin Malik’s company Persari, was perhaps Ismail’s greatest critical and commercial success.

We have really enjoyed working with Bradford City of Film and look forward to continuing to develop our relationship over the next few years. The cinema has become an important part of our community particularly among some of our more elderly customers. It’s great to see the community getting together with a wide range of ages and cultures and we look to expanding our audience in the future. Bradford is a much sought after filming location with a wide range of productions coming to city, from Hollywood and Bollywood blockbusters to high end TV drama. Well-known BBC TV series produced in Bradford include Peaky Blinders and Gentleman Jack, and a broad range of content production from independent production companies.

The world’s audiovisual heritage of sound recordings and moving images is extremely vulnerable as a result of factors ranging from neglect and natural decay to technological obsolescence, as well as deliberate destruction. The list was created by FEPACI, and passed through their network of filmmakers and scholars and their regional bodies, so that we could include pioneers and masters from all across Africa. We’ve just started working on Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975) from Algeria, by Mohammad Lakhdar-Hamina— this picture won the Palme d’or in Cannes in 1975, and it’s a milestone in Algerian cinema, and it just hasn’t been available for people to see. Since then, my love and admiration for African cinema has never stopped growing. The films of Youssef Chahine, Shadi Abdel-Salam, Djbril Diop Mambety, Ababakar Samb Makhamram, Med Hondo, Souleymane Cissé, and Idrissa Ouédraogo—they’re a source of inspiration for me, particularly Yeelen and Al Momia, which I’ve gone back to many times over the years. The legendary filmmaker talks exclusively to Cinema Escapist about his mission to restore and promote African films.

«Film Archives Beget Films»

In order to minimize the overall presence of mold, particularly invasive in reels 3, 5 and 6, the camera negative was wet-gate scanned at 4K resolution and digital restoration required considerable efforts. Missing frames in three different shots of reel 3 were replaced using the internegative. The restoration of Alyam, Alyam used the 16mm A/B rolls original camera and sound negatives preserved at Eclair Laboratories, where the 4K scan was performed.

• The 4K restoration of CHESS OF THE WIND was completed using the original 35mm camera and sound negatives.
• Shatranj-e Baad might be one of the most emblematic films in the history of Iranian cinema, even though its visibility was limited to a disastrous preview at Tehran International Film Festival in 1976.
• Director Ahmed El Maanouni supervised the color grading process and approved the final restoration.
• Archives around the world join together annually on 27 October to celebrate audiovisual archives with activities that not only highlight the vulnerability of this heritage, but celebrate the often unheralded work of the heritage institutions that protect it.
• Lara Croft’s adventure takes her to Bayon Temple within Angkor Thom on her quest to find the fate of her father.

What happens when we pay attention to the Intangible Cultural Heritage?

Lewat Djam Malam has been digitally restored using the original 35mm camera & sound negatives, interpositive, and positive prints preserved at the Sinematek Indonesia. The 4K restoration of XIAO WU was made from the original 16mm camera and sound negatives. The restoration process and color grading was supervised by director Jia Zhang-ke. In order to try and minimize the presence of visible spots (due to processing errors and aggravated by time) and scratches on the image, the camera negative was wet-scanned at 4K resolution.

The core of the digital sound restoration consists on several phases of manual editing, high resolution de-clicker & de-crackle, and multiple layers of fully automated noise reduction. It was an initiative that began with us, the World Cinema Project (a program of The Film Foundation). One of the WCP’s main goals is to give audiences a chance to discover a wide variety of cinema and languages from all over the world. All the elements were wet-scanned at a 4K resolution to eliminate or reduce heavy scratches and halos.

The original camera negative has been scanned in 4K by Gosfilmofond in Russia and restored by L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. The sound restoration was made from the original magnetic track, preserved by Gosfilmofond, in addition to the Armenian reference print. A vintage print of the film, produced on Orwo stock and preserved by the Harvard Film Archive, was used as a reference for the grading phase. The 4K restoration of La femme au couteau was made from the 35mm original camera and sound negatives. The original camera negative was damaged by mold, dirt, and scratches, and therefore required an extensive amount of digital restoration. The restoration of Al Momia used the original 35mm camera and sound negatives preserved at the Egyptian Film Center in Giza.

Culture is the traditional values that define who you are and your identity. Heritage is a precious thing that WORLD FILM HERITAGE is passed down from one generation to another. In short, intangible cultural heritage is the traditional values, living expressions, and customs that are transmitted from one generation to the next. Tongariro National Park was the UNESCO site filmed as the location of Mordor, the home of the Dark Lord Sauron in Lord of the Rings. The area’s jagged volcanic rock near New Zealand’s Lake Taupo is about 330 kilometers south of Auckland. Thankfully, the production crew took great care to preserve the sensitive ecological environment of the park.