“Film Heritage Educational Program” (India, France, USA)
The Technicolor Foundation set up a unique educational program dedicated to film heritage within the general curriculum of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), the national film school. It has been specifically designed to sensitize the future generation of filmmakers to the stakes and value of film heritage. Today, this yearly program is a mandatory course for all the first-year students of FTII. Now on since 2007, this program is being conducted with international film archives (George Eastman House, National Film Archive of India and Cinémathèque française) and with the strong support of filmmakers.Communicating the stakes of film heritage to future generations of filmmakers
Considering the stakes of film heritage for the future in the whole cinema field, the program hosted by the most famous Indian cinema school is open to film students, professionals from film archives and film laboratories from India. Contemporary filmmakers, cinema specialists and committed film archivists from around the world will express their different experience about the importance of keeping alive film heritage.
The lectures of this program will highlight the critical role of films for artistic creation, show that cinema heritage is still a vivid art of representation, a tremendous source of inspiration and have a mighty effect of memory. However, nowadays, beyond its intrinsic qualities, cinema is still a fragile art form: films are at risk of lost and disappearance, film heritage needs to be protected as the treasures of our culture.
During 4 days of conference, such topics are debated: “the stakes of film heritage, basic knowledge for handling films, cinema artwork and film heritage, showing films, digital perspectives…”
International cooperation for film preservation
For this outstanding event in Pune, the Technicolor Foundation has gathered international specialists coming from India, France and the USA. During four days, key speakers gave lectures in workshops, conferences and screenings about film heritage. They are professionals from film archives from George Eastman House (USA), Dan Wagner (Preservation Officer) and Pat Doyen (Vault Manager), from Cinémathèque française, Jean-François Rauger, Director of Programming and a specialist in Indian Silent Cinema and Film Appreciation from FTII, Professor Suresh Chabria. In 2007, film historian (Ashish Rajadhyaksha) and the previous directors of respectively FTII and NFAI, Tripurari Sharan et K. S. Sasidharan talked about the diversity of Indian cinema and the absolute necessity to preserve it. Film directors, Ketan Mehta and Anurag Kashyap were present to agree on this point.
In 2008, film directors Olivier Assayas, Sudhir Mishra and Nishikant Kamat lead « masters class » about the relationship between film heritage and contemporary cinematic creations.
Movie programming
As a complement to the courses during the day at FTII, the NFAI proposes in the evening a special and original programming for showing treasures of film heritage. Tthese movies were introduced each night by different filmmakers or personalities from the film Archives by explaining their choice to the public and by telling further about on their own connections with past and present emblematic movies. The theme of the projections are related to the topic of the conferences and pursue the debate about inspiration and influences in modern cinema.
In 2008, theses evening screenings became the « Pune Film Treasures Festival ». The programming was then based on the theme “Cinema of modernity and modernity of cinema”.