Channel News Asia Broadcast and Online
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/145030/1/.html

Also reported on Xinhua Online
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/01/content_2903277.htm

By Pearl Forss

28 April 2005

SINGAPORE: Thousands of people have attended the Singapore International Film Festival which draws to a close on April 30.

But just what happens to Asian films screened at such festivals?

Film makers said more often than not, these works of art were lost due to a lack of proper archives.

But some Singaporeans hope to change that.

Works of art like these may be appreciated by thousands at international film festivals.

But that's sometimes the extent of their shelf life.

Filmmakers in Asia estimate that thousands of reels have rotted over the last three decades, because of a lack of proper preservation techniques.

Amir Muhammad, Malaysian Filmmaker, said: "In Malaysia we don't really have a film archiving system which is quite a shame because even commercial movies made in the early 80s, some are gone forever and this is only two decades old. So imagine things that were longer than that. I think the same is true for the Philippines as well."

The Asian Film Archive, set up by a group of Singaporeans in January this year, hopes to change this.

The group has tied up with the National Archives of Singapore to collect and store 500 films from around the region by the end of this year.

In Singapore, they are also launching a Reel Emergency project which aims to rescue as many "orphan films" as possible - films that are critically acclaimed but lack commercial potential to pay for their continued preservation.

The Asian Film Archive estimates that there may be more than 100 of these films dating back to the 1930s.

Selected footage from this project will be featured at the International Conference on Asian Cinema in September.

Tan Bee Thiam, Executive Director of Asian Film Archive, said: "With the Asian film archive, we hope to extend the life span of such films such that there can actually be a place where film scholars, film critics and fellow film makers can actually have access to them, watch them again for inspiration."

But the art of film preservation isn't easy.

Wong Wee Hon, Head of Archives Reference at the National Archives of Singapore, said: "For a bad film, we have problems like brittle films and films that are shrunken, so for such films, for an hour of film, we can take two to three days to restore."

Reels must first be inspected and cleaned using special alcohol.

Then the film is spliced to join pieces that have disintegrated.

The final touch - converting film to video so that a back up copy exists in case the reel is lost.

The restored film is kept in this room which maintains a constant temperature of 18 degrees celsius and a relative humidity of 35 to 40 percent.

This prevents mould from growing and keeps the film in tip top condition for decades.

Members of the public will have access to restored films at the Asian Film Archive next year. - CNA/de