So, I found 300 lost films...

Message

Erikht · #1 Post by **Erikht** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:09 am

...or not lost per se, put unavailable on any format, mostly one copy only (this being the original), and in need of restauration A.S.A.P., as the climatic conditions where they are stored are horrible, and the country they are stored in is a fascist regime, which might take exception to some of the films (they are mostly documentaries). That's also the reason why I don't want to be more specific in an open post.

Who should I contact to ask for advice and assistance?

Oedipax · #2 Post by **Oedipax** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:14 am

Try contacting Janet Bergstrom, maybe

MichaelB · #3 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:17 am

Your description is too vague for me to be much help, but an archive with a proven interest in this kind of material would be your best bet.

Erikht · #4 Post by **Erikht** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:36 am

Well, their existence is not a secret for the government, so the secrecy is not necessarily a must(also, they have a home page), but our experience with the regime (and we have some) says that they have a tendency to be difficult when foreigners starts to show interest in the material. We have been asked for help by the rightholder, the filmmakers daughter, and her German contact.

This is the homepage, with some descriptions of the material.

Okay, I admit to being theatrical and overly paranoid.

puxzkkx · #5 Post by **puxzkkx** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:08 pm

This sounds like a truly valuable find. Are you looking to get these out of the country, or to have them restored or archived there?

MichaelB · #6 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:20 pm

Given the filmmaker's connection to the Colonial Film Unit, it might be worth approaching Patrick Russell at the BFI - he's the Senior Non-Fiction Curator, and was one of the people behind this website.

Since these films aren't British, it's probably unlikely that he'd be interested in formally acquiring them (at a time of financial austerity, a strong British link is pretty much essential), but he might be able to point you in the right direction.

Erikht · #7 Post by **Erikht** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:45 pm

Thank you, I will follow these leads. I am going to Khartoum next month, and will take a look myself and try do determin exactly what material there is. I might be able to get some funding for saving the material, but not for restauration, unfortunately.

#8 Post by **mfunk9786** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:49 pm

Any of them The Day the Clown Cried, by any chance?

Erikht · #9 Post by **Erikht** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:04 pm

MichaelB wrote:Given the filmmaker's connection to the Colonial Film Unit, it might be worth approaching Patrick Russell at the BFI - he's the Senior Non-Fiction Curator, and was one of the people behind this website.

Since these films aren't British, it's probably unlikely that he'd be interested in formally acquiring them (at a time of financial austerity, a strong British link is pretty much essential), but he might be able to point you in the right direction.

Could you please help me with contact information?

puxzkkx wrote:This sounds like a truly valuable find. Are you looking to get these out of the country, or to have them restored or archived there?

They can not be restored there, so for that they would have to be taken out of the country. But the first order would be to preserve them somehow to avoid further deterioration.

puxzkkx · #10 Post by **puxzkkx** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:01 pm

Write to Martin Scorsese.

knives · #11 Post by **knives** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:23 pm

The Danish film Institute might be interested (given where you're at I'm assuming that's the most relevant place).

Gregory · #12 Post by **Gregory** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:30 pm

^^^ The two countries have pretty lousy relations, right? Perhaps the institutional situation is a bit different.

knives · #13 Post by **knives** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:34 pm

Politics ruin everything. I would think though film institutes wouldn't be that petty.

MichaelB · #14 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:55 pm

The biggest headache is that most film institutes will have a specific cultural remit, often a national or geographical one, and they'll also have very limited funds.

Clearly, this collection is important: the mere fact that it includes half the entire feature-film output of a single country is testament to that. But while it's easy enough to construct a cultural case for its preservation, constructing a rock-solid argument for funding it from non-Sudanese sources is considerably tougher.

Erikht · #15 Post by **Erikht** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:31 am

MichaelB wrote:The biggest headache is that most film institutes will have a specific cultural remit, often a national or geographical one, and they'll also have very limited funds.

Clearly, this collection is important: the mere fact that it includes half the entire feature-film output of a single country is testament to that. But while it's easy enough to construct a cultural case for its preservation, constructing a rock-solid argument for funding it from non-Sudanese sources is considerably tougher.

And that is more or less the problem in a nutshell.

Well, Janet Bergstrom can not help me.

knives · #16 Post by **knives** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:41 am

If there's anything us anonymous poor people can do to help please say so. I don't have much in the way of resources, but if there's letters to be written or something along those lines I'd gladly assist.

#17 Post by **Matt** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 4:04 am

Try contacting FIAF?

whaleallright · #18 Post by **whaleallright** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 7:35 am

You might try contacting the Centre Cinématographique Marocaine in Morocco, a country whose government has better relations with Sudan than most (which is not saying all that much). They may at least have some advice.

CINEMATHEQUE MAROCAINE / CCM
B.P. 421 , Quartier Industriel, Av. Al Majd , Rabat , MOROCCO
T: 212-37 28 92 00 / 79 1890
F: 212-37 79 8105 / 8108
[email protected]
http://www.ccm.ma" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Correspondance:
M. Nour-Eddine Sail Directeur Général du CCM T: 212-37 28 92 00 / 79 1890
Mr. Abdellatif Laassadi Assistant du Directeur Général - Responsable de la Cinémathèque Marocaine T: 212-37 28 92 58 / 52
Language: *Français
Joined FIAF in 1996. Current status: Member

Good luck!

Erikht · #19 Post by **Erikht** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:07 am

I see that the National Film Archive in Egypt is amember in FIAF. That might be a possible connection too.

Knives: I don't know, I have very limitied experience with this. But all help is appreciated.

Well, I am going down to Khartoum with three other guys. One is a professor of history, so I think we can disregard him as any help in this, but the other two guys are the chief engeneer in charge of the technical side of the television production study at the Uni of Bergen, and a photographer working with preservation of old film stock (we have a collection dating back to the days of glass plates and silver plates, as well as old film stock). I think I can get a reasonable good idea of what is needed in order to at least stop further deteriation of the film stock.

Then, money. But I will contackt the Norwegian National Library, also a FIAF member, and see if they have any advices. Also, the Embassy in Khartoum is supporting our tekevision priject in Sudan, they might be persuaded that this project is as important as the TV project.

RobertB · #20 Post by **RobertB** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:14 am

Can Documentary Educational Resources be interested in buying and restoring any of this for the collection they have? I have no idea myself. Maybe worth contacting them. They do have a lot of documentary films from around the world.

Erikht · #21 Post by **Erikht** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:52 am

The Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau-S has agreed to fund the initial digitazion of the films. A good start.

jamie_atp · #22 Post by **jamie_atp** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:06 am

Good news! Best of luck.

Erikht · #23 Post by **Erikht** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:30 pm

The digitazion process has started. The work is done in Berlin.

htshell · #24 Post by **htshell** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:44 pm

Excellent to hear.

Minkin · #25 Post by **Minkin** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:19 pm

Two years have gone by... has there been any update or news with this project?

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