New IFFI sidebar showcases film heritage

Panaji, Nov 30 (IANS) A special five-day programme, IFFI Goa Film Treasures, designed to underline the importance of the world's film heritage, will conclude Saturday with the screening of Kenji Mizoguchi's 'The Legend of Bailiff Sansho'.

Besides the classic released in Japan in 1954, IFFI Goa Film Treasures showcased four other films -- a restored print of Jean Renoir's 'The Grand Illusion', Charlie Chaplin's 'Modern Times', Jacques Becker's 'Le Trou' (The Hole) and Ernst Lubitsch's wartime drama 'To Be Or Not To Be'.

The event is the result of a partnership between the organisers of the International Film Festival of India and the Paris-based Thomson Foundation for Film & TV Heritage.

'We hope to make this section an annual feature of IFFI,' says Severine Wemaere, adding: 'The need to step up efforts to preserve our film heritage has never been greater.'

Says Wemaere: 'Films are a vivid art of representation, a tremendous source of inspiration and they have a strong effect on the mind and imagination. But sadly, they are at risk of loss and disappearance.

'By participating in IFFI Goa Film Treasures, the Thomson Foundation aims to reach out to a larger population to emphasise the importance of film heritage.'

It is with that aim in mind that the Thomson Foundation is also spearheading a newly introduced course on film preservation at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

'The course was launched in April this year,' Wemaere says. 'We are now on the threshold of the second year of what is going to be a mandatory programme for every first year FTII student.'

The idea, he points out, is to sensitise the future generation of Indian filmmakers to the importance of preservation. 'It is crucial to train them right at the outset, instead of trying to catch them when it is too late.'

The FTII course devised by Thomson Foundation is being supported by Ketan Mehta and Anurag Kashyap. Moreover, Shyam Benegal is a member of the board of directors.

The IFFI Goa Film Treasures section was organised with the support of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) and the Cinematheque Francaise, the fabled 70-year-old French institution that was represented in Goa by its director-general, Serge Toubiani.