There’s a story about a man who buys a boat. Every year he
replaces one part of the boat until eventually all the parts have
been replaced.
This parable questions whether in the end the boat is new or
old, and it’s an issue with which film preservationists are
constantly grappling.
“Is it our job to improve the original or just return it
to its original quality?” said Steve Ricci, curator of the
UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “Out of the Past:
Film Restoration Today” program.
Beginning tonight and continuing over the next two months, the
program will screen seven recently restored film prints, ranging
from classics like “Metropolis” to contemporary
documentaries such as “The Times of Harvey Milk.”
Following each screening, the films’ restorers will discuss
the different processes used in preserving cinema.
“There are an awful lot of re-released films now, with
tremendous variability in quality,” Ricci said.
“We’re not trying to create a single standard.
We’re trying to clarify what is meant by a
“˜restoration.'”
With an increasing arsenal of technological resources available
to film preservationists, films can now be restored to a higher
quality than they were when they were theatrically released. For
instance, a mono soundtrack can easily be broken down and digitally
remastered into stereo tracks.
“Some folks feel their job is to make older films more
appealing to new audiences, while others just want to restore films
to their original states,” Ricci said.
Naturally, different preservationists have different theories
about what film preservation should be. Some see an old boat, and
others see something entirely new.
“The ideal of a good restoration is for the
preservationist to be absolutely invisible,” said Mike
Pogorzelski, a preservationist at the Academy Film Archive.
“I don’t want people to watch and be aware of my
presence.”
As part of the program, Pogorzelski will screen his restoration
of “Hearts and Minds,” a Vietnam War documentary which
won the 1974 best feature-length-documentary Oscar.
“No one cares about Mike Pogorzelski’s “˜Hearts
and Minds,'” Pogorzelski said. “People want to
see what won the Oscar.”
While saving poorly kept film prints, film restoration extends
beyond simply renewing fading film stock. Blaine Bartell, a
newsreel preservationist at the UCLA Film and Television Archive,
used available means to create something entirely new.
Working with Hearst Metrotone newsreel footage and an NBC radio
broadcast, Bartell spliced together a new view of a historic
concert by black singer Marion Anderson. In 1939, when the
Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Anderson have a
concert in Washington, D.C. because of her race, she instead held a
free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The event, now
recreated on film, was one of the first major protests of
widespread segregation.
“No one had ever gone to the different newsreel companies
to recreate the concert,” Bartell said. “It was long
overdue that this event be undertaken.”
If Pogorzelski sees an old boat, Bartell likely sees a new one,
and in the current world of film preservation and restoration,
neither is more right or wrong.
“The terms themselves are used differently,” Ricci
said. “Preservation, conservation, restoration,
reconstruction ““ we need to examine what is meant by
each.”
Ultimately, it is the very existence of the boat that matters to
all involved.
For more info, call (310) 206-FILM or log on to
www.cinema.ucla.edu.