Final Report on the Volunteering Project at the National Film Archive of Thailand (NFA)
November 10, 2005 | admin | trackbackWeek 5: June 6 to 10
Dome Sukvong pointed out a carton full of Kodachrome boxes that had been under termite attack. The contents is a film which is assumed lost: NOKNOI (Little Bird)1964 featuring Mit Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowaraj, the most famous screen couple of Thai Film history. There is a so called 16mm period in Thai cinema from 1947 to 1972, in which most films were shot on 16mm reversal material and dubbed afterwards to keep costs down, so that the surviving material is silent.
There were 92 boxes in different conditions: 19 boxes seemed heavily damaged, 59 looked clean from the outside and 14 reels were entirely without box. I inspected and rehoused them, after which we also tried different methods to clean the termite carton residue off the film without any success. From the research I did in the evenings, it seems that there are no cleaning methods that will work. In the end I had to cut out the worst sequences and put them in a separate can in order to at least make a transfer to dvd of the better material possible.
Week 6: June 13 to 17
I continued inspection of the outtakes, and then turned to several home movie collections. It became clear that nobody really had time to prepare material for me to work on so that I was trying to do as much as I could myself. However, there was a language issue. It is difficult to find out what is most urgent when one can not even read the notes on the cans. Also, there are so many problems and urgent cases that setting priorities is very difficult. I started considering a risk assessment project for next year, which would make it possible for people to work on material more systematically.
Week 7: June 20 to 24
Inspection, cleaning and rehousing of a home movie collection of the famous Thai singer Tina Aguilar. Also preparation of the workshop.
On the 22nd of June I assisted at a press conference: Lend a Helping Hand to the NFA: The biggest filmlaboratory in Thailand has been bought by Thomson Services and is today part of Technicolor labs. The managing director is Paul Stambaugh is well known as a filmpreservation and restoration enthusiast. Technicolour decided to do a special kind of sponsorship for the Thai Film Archive: they will work on two films each year for the archive. This is particularily important since the archive has no color technology facilities itself. To present and promote this a press conference was held (see articles in the Bangkok Post and The Nation available online). Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.net) 2005.06.23: First two films chosen for restoration The Nation (www.nationmultimedia.com) 2005.06.24: Technicolour to the rescue of old movies
Weekend 25 & 26 Workshop: Audiovisual archiving basics.
14 people partcipated on the first day. The first thing we did was to watch 10 minutes from a Thai “restoration” vcd from a film called THE BANDIT again with Mit Chaibancha (the model film for TAH FALAH JONG, Tears of the Black Tiger. The term “retsoration” is used on the cover of the vcd. It is a transfer from a very worn and color faded print with a newly added soundtrack. I asked people to write down what they see in terms of print problems and we watched it again at the end and discussed the problems together. I then gave an overview of the history of audiovisual archiving with some examples from the region and pointed the people to organizations such as FIAF, SEAPAVAA and AMIA. We discussed the different traditions in archival awareness, the necessities to preserve ones cultural heritage, which as I am informed- is a relatively new notion in Thailand. Next I talked about the different work areas/positions/duties in an AV archive. A tour of the archive was given by Dome Sukvong. From the work areas we moved to ethical issues. Chalida Uabumringjit from the Thai Film Foundation translated, and it is no doubt due to her translation that we got very lifely discussions on ethical issues, since she could add a lot of examples from Thai experiences. Some issues became very complex due to different concepts, for exampleteh notion of conflicts of Interest. There does not seem to be a Thai language equivalent, possibly because work and private life do not get separated in the same way (if at all). The last afternoon we spent on film & magnetic tape handling, but due to the lack of time and space I could only demonstrate. The outcome was that most people wanted to start working as volunteers in the archive, two of them made appointments for the upcoming week already. It was also decided that a workshop like this should be held every year for everybody. It was unfortunate that most of the staff members from the archive did not find it interesting enough to participate, as well as the fact that the staff from the PRD Archive and Museum was on a field trip.
Week 8: June 27 to July 1
Three more trainees from the workshop started. We started on some basic film handling and Dome Sukvong explained some cataloguing and film registration to them, as this is another area of the archive with a big backlog.
The last two days are spent with finishing up and cleaning and good bye parties with lots of food.
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