Manipur Film archivist bags Champions of Film Heritage Award

Johnson Rajkumar, film archivist who works as a volunteer at the SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum of Manipur State Film Archive & Museum bagged the “Champions of Film Heritage Award” at the recently held, annual ‘Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop’, organised jointly by Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), Mumbai, and International Federations for Film Archive (FIAF), Belgium in association with ‘The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project’ at Mumbai from December 4 to 8, 2022.

According to a statement issued by Sunzu Bachaspatimayum, Secretary, MSFDS, Johnson Rajkumar was among the four film archivists of the world who were awarded at the inauguration of the workshop for their outstanding contribution to the movement of film archiving and preservation in their respective countries. Manipuri Film Archivist, Johnson Rajkumar was adjudged the “Champions of Film Heritage” with the citation, “For his selfless commitment and courage in taking the road less travelled with limited support and resources and taking on the challenge of sparking a movement for film preservation and laying the foundation to building a film archive and training archivists in his home state of Manipur.”. Other awardees included Dammith Fonseka for Sri Lanka for his resolution to save Sri Lanka’s film heritage, and Chiranjibi Guragain from Nepal for initiating a digitization project for Nepal’s film heritage. Virchand Dharamsey of India received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary dedication as a chronicler of the fragile history of India’s silent cinema.

Notably, Johnson Rajkumar who was selected as one of the workshop participants, went on to complete the advanced course in Film Preservation and Restoration, covering a broad range of topics regarding film preservation. The intense week-long programme, accredited by FIAF, included both theoretical lectures and hands-on training in the finest methods for preserving and restoring films, both celluloid and digital, as well as paper, photographic, and 3D objects that are
relevant to the film industry.

A faculty of international professionals from top institutes of the world mentored the workshop. The faculty included David Walsh from FIAF, Arike Oke from British Film Institute, Tiago Ganhão from Cinemateca Portuguesa, Marianna de Sanctis from L’Immagine Ritrovata, Maura Pischedda from L’Immagine Ritrovata, Etienne Marchand from Institut National de L’Audiovisual, Samantha Leroy from Fondation Jérôme Seydoux, Marina Ruiz-Molina from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rio Lopez from Academy Museum of Motion, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur from Film Heritage Foundation and others.

Significantly, collections of Manipur’s State Film Archive, the SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum, like the only available deteriorated prints of the first attempted feature film of Manipur, ‘Mainu Pemcha’ was used throughout the workshop as a case for demonstration on advanced course in Film Repair, Treatment of Film in poor condition and Film identifications. Manipuri Film Archivist, Johnson Rajkumar described the international workshop as the most thorough of its kind in the world that has evolved into the template for FIAF’s global training initiatives.

“The workshop is immensely helpful for me in terms of how I could contribute to SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum as an Archivist. It was an intense week long exercise that included various archive strategies to successfully run an Archive. I also got to learn the workflow for chemically deteriorated film; how to do first inspection according to the best practice known in the world; what to do before starting any kind of treatment and establishing how to start & check chemical treatments from the learned Film Repair Specialist at L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, mentor, Maura Pischedda. She also agreed to help SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum for any films that need to be inspected and treated from the collection of our Archive.” Johnson Rajkumar confided.

Johnson also met the Object Conservator of Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, California, Ms Rio Lopez who also agreed to help how to best conserve and display the objects in SN Chand Cine Archive & Museum. Manipur State Film Development Society Secretary, Sunzu Bachaspatiyum who also attended as an invitee of the inauguration of ‘Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop’ held at Regal Cinema, Mumbai congratulated Johnson Rajkumar on his winning the “Champions of Film Heritage Award” and said the award and Johnson’s participation at the ‘Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop’ would certainly prove to be an invaluable asset for archiving and preservation of Manipur’s film heritage through the activities of SN Chand Cine Archive and Museum.