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Restoring Ray |
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‘Kanchenjungha’– a priority in the present phase of restoration project. Here, the jobless youth mocks the arrogance of the young woman’s father. |
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Soon after its formation, the Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films (Satyajit Ray Society), in coordination with the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection (Satyajit Ray FASC) of the University of California Santa Cruz, initiated a dialogue with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Los Angeles), popularly known as the Oscar Academy. A programme was gradually taking shape – one, which would bring about the restoration of Ray's films at the Academy's famed Archives. It was to be a joint effort of the parallel organisations in both India and the USA – the Satyajit Ray Society on the one hand and the Academy on the other -- with the |
Satyajit Ray FASC acting as the coordinator of all that passed from India to the restoration facility at the Academy. The final goal was to create at least one set of archival elements to be housed in each country – elements which would go towards preserving Ray's films for future generations.
The same year David H. Shepard, a noted film preservationist in California, came to India to examine and file a technical report on the original negatives of Ray films.He was accompanied by Dilip K. Basu, Director of the Satyajit Ray FASC. Shepard found eighteen of Ray's thirty-six film-negatives in ‘tatters'. His Preliminary Report Regarding Preservation of Films by Satyajit Ray remains one of the most authoritative documents on Ray films. The urgent need for immediate restoration was more than obvious in that report --- a need that became even more urgent because six of Ray's classics, including The Apu Trilogy, burned in a fire at the Henderson Laboratories in London (1993), subsequent to Shepard's visit. |
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Seriously concerned, the Satyajit Ray Society prepared a proposal seeking funds for an international project to identify and locate all available elements of Ray films, including prints and negatives, and creating a set of restored elements. One was sent to UNICEF which funded the world-wide search for surviving Ray film elements; the other was forwarded to The Ford Foundation. The Foundation responded with a major grant from its Delhi office to the Satyajit Ray Society (1993), and another to the Satyajit Ray FASC. The Satyajit Ray Society and the Satyajit Ray FASC began searching for prints and negatives all over India, and the world – and began shipping them to the Academy's Archives (AMPASA). The actual business of restoring Ray's films was finally under way!
AMPASA, like other film archives recognized by Federation International Archives of Film (FIAF) in Brussels, Belgium, follows a well-trodden path in restoring films: Treat the originals with utmost respect without attempting to improve upon their authenticity and integrity .The original, when available, is the principal source of a fine grain film print or that of an inter-positive which is displayed as the candidate for restoration. The process is known as photochemical. |
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Michael Friend, the restorer |
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It involves frame by frame intensive work occasionally turning to better quality surviving elements of unsubtitled 35mm film prints for replication when the original proves unusable. |
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‘The Expedition’ is restored. Here the taxi-driver becomes aware of the drug peddling merchant’s aim. |
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This time tested labor-intensive process requires long experience and an artistic eye. It is expensive. This is to be contracted to "digitization" which is much more expensive, and not yet time-tested i.e., it is still evolving and changing. Contrary to a common misperception Ray films are NOT being digitally restored. It doesn't mean they will not be in the future, especially films such as Kanchenjungha or Sikkim which do not have the original negatives any longer The Academy provides the basic infrastructure, professional expertise, and supports initial costs. It maintains an annual budget for Ray restorations. Additional funds have come from the Packard Humanities Institute, the Film Foundation, and Merchant-Ivory Foundation. |
Mr. Michael Friend, Director of AMPASA during 1992-1999 was in charge of Ray restorations. It is now led by Mr. Michael Pogorzelski, the present director, and his associate, Mr. Joseph Lindner.
The Satyajit Ray Society, in coordination of the Satyajit Ray FASC, has so far been instrumental in the restoration of such Ray classics as Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), Jalsaghar (The Music Room), Devi (The Goddess), Teen Kanya ( Two Daughters , excluding the part of Monihara ) , Abhijan (The Expedition), Mahanagar (The Big City), Charulata (The Lonely Wife), Nayak (The Hero), Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha), Seemabaddha (Company Limited), Jana Aranya (The Middleman), Two and Kapurush-O-Mahapurush (The Coward and the Holy Man) . The other films that are now on the restoration anvil include Monihara and Kanchanjungha. |
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| Contributed by DKB, KDG and AKD
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