Mission Statement
Film Heritage Foundation is a not-for-profit organization established by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur in 2014. It is devoted to supporting the preservation, conservation, and rebuilding of the moving image and to creating intriguing programs to form mindfulness around the dialect of cinema.
Programs and Activities
A member of the Universal Alliance of Film Archives (FIAF) since 2015, the Film Heritage Foundation is the only non-governmental organization within the nation working in film conservation.
Training Initiatives
Film Heritage Foundation, in association with FIAF, has been conducting yearly film conservation and reclamation workshops in several cities around India since 2015. The primary workshop was held at the Films Division in Mumbai in 2015, the second at the National Film Archives of India in 2016, and the third at the Prasad Laboratories in Chennai in 2017. The next workshop is scheduled to be held in Kolkata in 2018. Other than India, these workshops are also open to neighbouring nations like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Malaysia which are also missing an asset of a prepared workforce to protect their varying media legacy.
Film Collection
Film Heritage Foundation encompasses a developing film collection of 8 mm, 16 mm, and 35 mm film reels put away in controlled conditions for conservation that incorporates the movies of celebrated specialists like Amitabh Bachchan, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Kumar Shahani, Vishal Bharadwaj and Mani Ratnam among others.
Non-film Archive
This initiative also keeps up non-film files of JBH Wadia, A.R. Kardar, Kidar Sharma, Saeed Mirza, Pran, Kundan Shah, and P K Nair other than the claim collection that holds a trove of paper and photographic fabric including scripts, blurbs, campaign cards, tune booklets, film magazines and photos speaking to the array of diverse territorial film businesses in India.
Do You Speak Cinema?
Film Heritage Foundation has developed a five-chapter module outlined to investigate the different aspects of cinema from the advancement of cinema within the celluloid arrange to film history to the appreciation of its visual dialect. The modules are basically for children but can be tailor-made for distinctive ages. The point is to prepare them to get into an observing group of onlookers in a world in which they are always assaulted with pictures which are especially significant to the born computerised era.
Beliefs
- The moving picture is a craftsmanship shape that is one of the foremost influential and pervasive craftsmanship shapes nowadays.
- It is a fundamental portion of our cultural and social heritage because it could be a reflection of who we are and the times we live in. It is both contemporary and authentic at the same time.
- As we see it nowadays, the film isn’t just a social legacy but a dialect that must be protected for eras to come.
- It is fundamental to protect and re-establish not only movies but all shapes of the moving picture, including brief movies, avant-garde and exploratory movies, documentaries, music recordings, domestic motion pictures, promoting movies, tv serials, etc., made in this nation.
- The world has misplaced a large part of this legacy and proceeds to do so due to our disappointment in preserving and protecting this craftsmanship frame.
- Without the intercession of the establishment in collaboration with the government, the film industry, and the open at expansive, it’ll not be conceivable to save our film legacy.
- The establishment will emphasise the significance of protecting movies on celluloid and the need to protect and re-establish the first source fabric of any film.
- It is vital to teach the moving picture’s open history and dialect and recognise that film can be an effective educational tool that can be consolidated into existing school educational programs.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
The originator chief Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is an award-winning filmmaker, filer, and restorer who energetically accepts the cause of film conservation and reclamation and is extraordinarily qualified to head the establishment.
His to begin with narrative “Celluloid Man” pays tribute to India’s amazing documenter P.K. Nair, celebrating the history of Indian cinema and making an intense supplication for its conservation and reclamation. His moment narrative, “The Immortals” told the story of Indian cinema through the visual investigation of physical artefacts, individual spaces, and living recollections.
Collecting, Cataloguing, And Digitizing
A film may be discharged at a specific time, but it is seen unexpectedly at diverse times, and this immortal quality of cinema makes it so critical to protect movies.
In order to protect our priceless but progressively imperilled corpus of moving pictures, the establishment works towards procuring, collecting, and documenting film and film-related material. This incorporates moderating and protecting all moving pictures in their unique organise, utilising the best capacity hones and the cataloguing and digitisation of the fabric to make strides open to get to.
Another essential aspect of documenting we’ll centre on is the persistent exploration of India’s misplaced movies, their recuperation, conservation, and reclamation.
References:
- Preserving India’s Cinematic Heritage (no date) Film Heritage Foundation. Available at: https://filmheritagefoundation.co.in/ (Accessed: 19 May 2023).
