FIAF affiliates urge all those who make and look after films, whether they be professionals or amateurs, and the government officials in all nations responsible for safeguarding the world cinema heritage, to help pursue this mission.
This strategy is complementary to the development of efficient methods for the preservation of the digital-born heritage. While fully recognizing that moving image technology is currently driven by the progress achieved in the digital field, the members of FIAF are determined to continue to acquire film and preserve it as film.
Film is culturally irreplaceable, and can last a long time, especially in expert hands.
If you are not sufficiently equipped to keep film yourself, then FIAF and its members will gladly help you locate an archive that is. On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, FIAF offers the world a new slogan: “DON’T THROW FILM AWAY”. However for some genres, geographical regions and periods of film history, the survival rate is known to be considerably less than 10% of the titles produced. The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and its affiliates comprising more than 130 archives in over 65 countries have rescued over two million films in the last seventy years. Film archives, both public and private, are the organizations responsible for acquiring, safeguarding, documenting and making films available to current and future generations for study and pleasure. Motion picture film forms an indispensable part of our cultural heritage and a unique record of our history and our daily lives. Non-film materials such as posters, still photos, scenarios, advertisement materials and technical devices are also inspected, catalogued, restored and preserved under the proper condition of temperature and humidity.įor information about NFAJ Sagamihara Conservation Center, a specialized facility designed for the long-term preservation of films and related materials, please see the following page. In recent years, films such as Rashomon, Ginrin ( Bicycle in Dream), four of Yasujiro Ozu’s films in color and Nihon nankyoku tanken ( The Japanese Expedition to Antarctica) have been restored that way. To the films with especially high values as art or historical reference, we apply cutting-edge sophisticated technology in order to closely reproduce their contents. Deteriorated or damaged films (or the ones in such danger), extremely rare films and flammable films are duplicated for longer conservation. Newly collected films (including digital cinema), either donated or bought, are catalogued and preserved after inspection. Number of non-film materials in our collection(as of March 2021) Books (in Japanese language) Number of films in our collection (as of March 2021) JAPANESE films We are also exhaustively acquiring non-film materials, such as books, posters and still photos. On the principle of collecting any surviving film made in any country, we are systematically acquiring films, giving priority to ones in danger of loss or deterioration, extraordinarily rare ones and ones required for screening programs or international exchange programs.