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ASIAN FILM... from p. 5
new and popular medium but simply of 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 Asian nations did not start preserving films systematically until the 1970s under the banner of the National Film Center.
In Hong Kong, one of the most prolific film centers of the world, the call for a film archive was not even made until the late 1970s. Not that the people of Hong Kong did not care about film -- they did, in a big way, and still do -- but they had more pressing matters than film 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 of motion pictures division at the Philippine Information Agency, told 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 collapsed with the regime after three years, after which it was unceremoniously absorbed into the censorship department. The mandate of this office was other than of film preservation. The role of archiving is now left to the small and under-funded Society of Film Archivists (SOFIA), 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.
Political upheavals such as the overthrow of Marcos are commonplace in Asia. In fact, the long and magnificent history of 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 was favorable to the preservation of films. It did not help that much of the area which was also mired in various forms of colonial or authoritarian riles, 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 was not until the 1980s, with the rise of a search of identity, did the Hong Kong people rediscover its history.
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Upholding Cultural Memories
In Hong Kong, the establishment of the Film Archive was met with enthusiastic response from both the public and the film industry. A vast number of prints and artifacts have been collected, preserved, or restored, keeping alive a heritage that had been neglected for a long time. Even before its official opening, the Hong Kong Film Archive had already conducted a wide variety of public-serving activities to share its work with people who are among the most film-loving in the world. It has staged exhibits of various scales that showcased the area’s cinematic history and it has published several series of books that cover different aspects of Hong Kong film history.
Asian film archives have indeed played an important role in upholding the cultural memory of the continent. In his concluding speech for the symposium, Edmondson pointed out that the moving-image memory of the 20th century is largely a Euro-American one, a practice that “must not and cannot continue”. He reiterates the position of the Singapore Declaration, made in 2000 at a meeting of the South East Asia/Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association, that “the audio-visual memory of the 21st century should be truly and equitably reflective of all nations and cultures”.
If anything, Asian cinema has certainly made its presence felt at the turn of the century. Films from the Chinese diaspora - be they from China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong - have at long last established themselves in the pantheon of world cinema. Countries with fine film traditions have also continued to shine, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and especially Japan. So too in South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore. The film industries have been coming of age in a big way, both commercially and artistically. What is more encouraging is that, in the increasingly globalized climate of the 21st century, different Asian cinemas are collaborating with each other, at once to counter the powerful invasion of Hollywood and to explore shared values in art and entertainment.
Much have been said of the new century as the Asian Century. To many in Asia, that had been more hype or, worse, spin. But it is not an overstatement to say that Asia will - and definitely should - play an increasingly equal role on the global stage. It is hoped that Asian cinema will continue to contribute to that equity by keeping up with its amazing performance in the latter years of the last century. Regardless, Asian film archives, in their capacities to at once look back and ahead, will, and should, be an important part of that effort.
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BADLIS... from p. 4
the gelatin. This is still a risk. If too much water is removed, the gelatin may become brittle and detach from the film base.
Making an assumption that the film will be printed, it was now time to look at another problem, which was the strong magenta color to the film base. The duplicating process requires that the negatives be copied into a black and white interpositive film. Interpositive materials are not sensitive to the full spectrum of light and only a portion of the light passing through the magenta cast can been “seen” by the interpositive. The magenta cast is caused by a dye that is used in black and white camera negative film to reduce the effect of light “bouncing around” inside the film during exposure. When the film is processed, the dye is rendered colorless; however, the highly acidic environment created by decomposition causes the dye to reform.
At present the outcome of the vacuum treatment research to see what effect this might have had on the stability of the emulsion for other treatments is being awaited. The best outcome is a gelatin emulsion sufficiently stable to permit rewashing the film to decolorize the dye.
If the magenta dye can not be removed or reduced, and it prevents making a good copy, then using a color duplicating film will be tried. To do this a neutral image will be attempted by balancing the printer and by increasing the contrast in the subsequent black and white negative to compensate for the lower contrast in the color material.
While it is very sad to see films in this condition, it enables us to obtain a great deal of understanding of the way films deteriorate. Badlis Sa Kinabuhi, in particular, has given technical people a great deal of knowledge on the problems that the gelatin emulsion faces during decomposition. From this understanding, new techniques are developed to prevent the loss of films for future generations. Even digital restoration processes can be made more effective if the exact nature of the problem is known.
For more information on the effect of decomposition on gelatin or other work of ScreenSound Australia visit our website: www.screensound.gov.au.
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