Education

(Les informations sont uniquement disponibles en anglais)

Preliminary Information Sheet

FILM RESTORATION SUMMER SCHOOL
FIAF SUMMER SCHOOL - BOLOGNA 2007

Theory Lessons on Film Restoration: distance learning, 2 May – 29 June
Introduction and attendance at Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival: Bologna, 30 June – 7 July
Restoration Practice: Bologna, 9-29 July

The current state of things
The introduction of new digital technologies has revolutionized film restoration and radically transformed the concept of preserving and accessing cinema. Today more than ever, our film heritage is available to large audiences via digital media. In the tradition of the pioneering work initiated by FIAF Summer Schools since 1973, this is the first time that the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF), the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE), and the MEDIA Plus Programme of the European Union will combine their efforts with the Cineteca di Bologna and the Immagine Ritrovata film restoration and conservation laboratory, and organize the first Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School.

Why a FIAF Summer School focused on restoration?
While the whole film community numbers many film archives, specialized laboratories are by contrast very few. Every year, each film archive restores a considerable number of prints. Hence, it appears necessary for today’s curators and their staffs to be trained to use new digital equipment to preserve and restore old films, and to learn about digital strategies for access. Furthermore, all students who are interested in working in a film archive and/or restoration laboratory in the near future should be provided with highly specialized digital and analog tools to enter this field.

Film restoration Summer School and Il Cinema Ritrovato
Film restoration should not be confined within the walls of a specialized laboratory. Presenting and exhibiting restored films is an active part of the restoration process. For this reason we have decided to open the Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School in Bologna, in conjunction with the festival Il Cinema Ritrovato [30 June-7 July 2007], a true meeting place for researchers and experts. The connection between learning about digital and analog restoration and Il Cinema Ritrovato is therefore a close one. It is important to put restoration into practice and to learn how to restore a film, while it is equally crucial to understand how old films, restored by different archives, can be exhibited today.

Film restoration Summer School targets
The project’s main objective is to teach and update participants on how to restore, reconstruct, and preserve a film using analog and new digital technology, and how analog systems and new digital technologies can actually coexist. Participants will have the chance to experience everyday work in a highly specialized laboratory, including all departments and every step of the process, from beginning to end. In following the Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School, participants are expected to acquire certain skills: how to operate all digital and analog equipment in an archive and a restoration laboratory; follow a complete restoration process; perform all the main necessary operations needed to restore a film; evaluate the state of conservation of a film, and decide the best practice to restore, reconstruct, and preserve it.

Analog and digital restoration
The innovative Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School is the first film school programme dedicated to teaching digital and analog techniques to restore old archival prints. While digital technologies have a well-established role in the contemporary film industry, the importance that they play in film restoration has been somewhat neglected as a teaching/learning experience.

Final aims
After completing the Film Restoration Summer School / FIAF Summer School, the target group will know how a film can be restored following new digital and analog technologies in a modern, flexible work environment. Furthermore, the target group will be able to assess the best format to restore a film and have it translated from film support to broadcasting and DVD support.