Hackaday: Collection Of Old Films Rescued For Preservation. “Periscope Film owners [Doug] and [Nick] just released a mini-documentary about the rescue of a large collection of old 16 mm celluloid films from the landfill. The video shows the process of the films being collected from the donor and then being sorted and organized in a temporary storage warehouse.”
Washington Post: Cine2Nerdle is a remarkably fun Wordle-like game for movie obsessives. “…if you love the movies — and come on, who doesn’t? — Cine2Nerdle may feel like a breath of fresh air. The game looks like Wordle and has a name that’s similar to Wordle, but the main underlying mechanic is quite different. Cine2Nerdle presents players with a four-by-four set of tiles, each with a word or phrase on it that corresponds to a movie.”
Mashable: The ‘film Twitter take generator’ isn’t an AI. That’s why it’s so good. . “The film Twitter take generator is funnier than any ChatGPT nonsense I’ve seen — and that has a lot to do with the fact that it has nothing to do with AI. All it takes to have an awesome generator is someone with a vast knowledge of the subject matter. It also has the added benefit of being divorced from all the ethical questions surrounding AI.”
Internet Archive: Public Domain Day Film Contest Highlights Works of 1927. “At Internet Archive we love to see how creative people can get with the material we make available online. As part of this year’s Public Domain Day celebration we asked the greater community to submit short films highlighting anything that was going to be made available in the Public Domain in 2023. For the contest, vintage images and sounds were woven into creative films of 2-3 minutes. Many of the films were abstract while others educational, they all showcased the possibility when public domain materials are made openly available and accessible for download.”
SWI: Swiss cinema adapts to energy crisis.”Cinémathèque Suisse has also developed scenarios to anticipate possible power cuts and enable it to continue its activities. Priority has been given to the ‘physical’ film collections, which must be stored at a certain temperature and humidity level, as well as to the digital archives stored on different servers.”
Johns Hopkins University: A Forgotten Era Of Filmmaking Finds A New Home At Johns Hopkins. “The Sheridan Libraries has acquired the Academic Film Archive of North America, an eclectic collection of more than 7,600 vintage 16-mm films.”
Screen Daily: Amid a skills shortage, ‘Talented U’ database showcases 300 UK-based Ukrainian film and TV professionals. “Over 300 Ukrainian film and TV workers living in the UK have signed up to a new online database, Talented U, that aims to help industry professionals forced to flee Ukraine since the Russian invasion to continue their careers and contribute their skills to the UK industry, which is currently in the throes of a skills shortage.”
Variety: National Film Archive of India on Mission to Restore 5,000 Films. “The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has undertaken the massive task of restoring 5,000 priceless classics of Indian cinema.”
Cairo Scene: The Arab Kissing Archive Reclaims On-screen Intimacy In Arab Film. “The Instagram account acts as a digital archive, posting snippets of kissing scenes from films made all over the Arab world, documenting titles, actors and filmmakers in the process. The project began in January 2022, with the anonymous founders amassing a dedicated Instagram following and a feed of Arab cinema’s remarkable pecks and smooches while reclaiming a cinematic narrative that is often forgotten.”
Digital Photography Review: LensKit is a new iOS app that helps you pick the right camera, lens for your next video shoot. “Zak Ray, a cinematographer, colorist and developer who creates apps for filmmakers, has released LensKit, a new tool that makes it easy to plan a video shoot. LensKit consists of a comprehensive database of adapters, cameras and lenses that work together to show you what lenses can be used on what cameras, what their equivalent focal length will be based on the camera’s format and more.”
The Armenian Reporter: The National Archive and the Cinema Center will join efforts to restore old Armenian films . “Today, April 26, Grigor Arshakyan, Director of the National Archives of Armenia, and Shushanik Mirzakhanyan, Acting Director of the National Cinema Center of Armenia, signed a memorandum of cooperation establishing wide-ranging cooperation between the two organizations in preserving films owned by the Republic of Armenia, in the direction of digitalization and popularization.”
Agenda (Country of Georgia): National Film Center unveils new portal introducing European cinema, film art . “A new film portal introducing European cinema heritage and facilitating study of the history of the art form was unveiled by the Georgian National Film Centre on Thursday, with the website aimed to provide access to archival material, video classes and more to young cinephiles…. Allowing young enthusiasts to ‘explore and analyse’ cinema with knowledge of the art form and its history, it has been designed to utilise ‘pedagogical potential across a range of curriculum subjects,’ and involves tests, exercises, video lessons and other visual material on the subjects.” The site is available in Georgian, English, Serbian, and Italian.
Independent: Speaking of history: Soviet-era film archive helps Ukrainians find hope and sense of identity in wartime. “There have been no film screenings in Ukraine for more than six weeks now, at least not above ground. However, at the request of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, Ukraine’s biggest film archive has screened a series of Soviet-films in metro stations in cities from Kyiv to Kharkiv, where residents have sought refuge while Russian bombs rain down from above. The showings are one element of the Ukrainian resistance against Vladimir Putin’s war, which has seen regular civilians stealing tanks, making Molotov cocktails, and confronting soldiers.”
Crosscut: Trailblazing Seattle filmmaker finally gets her due. “Documentarian Jean Walkinshaw shared stories of everyday people in the Northwest. Now, her long career is being honored with an online archive.”
ABC News (Australia): How home movies reveal decades of Queensland’s history. “Family members of deceased amateur filmmakers are uncovering home movies dating back to the 1930s, which document life in the Sunshine State over generations. However, due to age, heat and humidity, the films are deteriorating at a rapid rate and the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) is in a race against time to save them. SLQ staff are digitising and storing the best quality home movies they are given and sharing them online.”
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