Film archivist Johnson honoured at Mumbai event
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, January 13 2023:
Film archivist Johnson Rajkumar, who works as a volunteer at the SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum of Manipur State Film Archive & Museum, bagged the 'Champions of Film Heritage Award' at the Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop, an annual event, held at Mumbai from December 4 to 8, 2022 .
The workshop was organised jointly by Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), Mumbai, and International Federations for Film Archive (FIAF), Belgium in association with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project.
Johnson was among the four film archivists of the world awarded at the workshop for their outstanding contribution to the movement of film archiving and preservation in their respective countries.
He was adjudged the 'Champions of Film Heritage' with the citation, "For his selfless commitment and courage in taking the road less travelled with limited support and resources and taking on the challenge of sparking a movement for film preservation and laying the foundation to building a film archive and training archivists in his home state of Manipur".
Notably, Johnson Rajkumar completed the advanced course in film preservation and restoration, covering a broad range of topics regarding film preservation.
The intense week-long programme, accredited by FIAF, included both theoretical lectures and hands-on training in the finest methods for preserving and restoring films, both celluloid and digital, as well as paper, photographic, and 3D objects that are relevant to the film industry.
A faculty of international professionals from top institutes of the world mentored the workshop.
Significantly, collections of SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum, like the only available deteriorated prints of the first attempted feature film of Manipur, 'Mainu Pemcha' was used throughout the workshop as a case for demonstration on advanced course in film repair, treatment of film in poor condition and film identifications.
Commenting on his participation in the workshop, Johnson said: "The workshop is immensely helpful for me in terms of how I could contribute to SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum as an archivist.
It was an intense exercise that included various archive strategies to successfully run an archive".
"I also got to learn the workflow for chemically deteriorated film; how to do first inspection according to the best practice known in the world; what to do before starting any kind of treatment and establishing how to start and check chemical treatments from the learned film repair specialist at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, mentor, Maura Pischedda.
She also agreed to help SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum for any films that need to be inspected and treated from the collection of our Archive", he added.
Johnson also met the object conservator of Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, California, Rio Lopez, who also agreed to help him on how to best conserve and display the objects in SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum.
Manipur State Film Development Society secretary Sunzu Bachaspatiyum, who also attended the workshop as an invitee opined that Johnson's award and participation in the workshop would certainly prove to be an invaluable asset for archiving and preservation of Manipur's film heritage through the activities of SN Chand Cine Archive and Museum.