Race to restore Myanmar cinema classics for a second screening »Manila Lifestyle Newsletter



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By Agence France-Presse

The restoration of a 1934 black-and-white action film, Famous for its high acrobatics A flight in the air and a shootout in the jungle against teak wood thieves, boosted efforts to save more of Myanmar's declining film heritage

<img class = "size-full wp-image-38524" src = "https://lifestyle.mb.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/5ad0f3b5bac50a2eb883c068be311989243470fd.jpg" alt = "(AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)

still in existence "Mya Ga Naing", and its rise to international acclaim is perhaps as unlikely a feat as the triumph of its leading role on pythons and bandits with bare hands.

The country of 39; Southeast Asia is once flourishing The arrival of a military junta in 1962 imposed strict censorship and destroyed the economy during a reign of 50 years old

As the creative climate prevailed, Myanmar's ruthless warmth, torrential rains, and sweltering humidity took flight. There were tricky film reels in a country that had neither the resources nor the know-how to store them properly.

Some reels have been recycled to save money and there are only a dozen first black and white images left. 19659007] "Mya Ga Naing", originally a silent film that later added music and printed title cards, is the oldest to have been found up here.

He languished in the state archives for decades Careful retouch of the film frame by frame, projecting the restored version in 2016.

Experts spent hundreds of hours in the laboratory of The Immagine Ritrovata (The Rediscovered Image) in Bologna removing all the little scratches and stains of the film and digitizing using various resources, including a film found in the archives in Berlin – a record of the distance traveled by the original film.

"Whenever the restoration progressed, it was like a new birth for the film," says Séverine Wem. aere, co-founder of MEMORY! Cinema, who oversaw the restoration and raised funds from donors for the $ 100,000 prize

"It was very moving because we could say that we were in a movie country."

Sound or color?

The classic has also performed at festivals in Singapore, Thailand and Switzerland, and has been regularly broadcast at home in Myanmar.

A group of musicians attended a sold-out performance in Yangon. an original soundtrack added in 1954 that mixes local traditional music with western jazz.

The film gained international fame this year after UNESCO granted the film a place on its Asia Pacific documentary heritage list. just in cinema, but also in Myanmar's film tradition.

The country's first film was screened in 1920.

In the 1950s, the industry was at its peak with Myanmar filmmakers pumping dozens of

But the plot has shot in the last half of the 20th century as military leaders crushed creativity and closed the country to foreign influences and technology.

While almost all early films were lost, the successful renaissance of "Mya Ga Naing" stimulates a movement to preserve what remains.

The next film to be restored in 2017 was Pyo Chit Lin (My Darling), a comedy shot in 1950 on a budget so tight that the director Tin Myint had to choose

He opted for the latter, which in made the oldest surviving color film known in the country.

Every second counts

The contemporary Myanmar Okkar filmmaker plays a leading role in the effort to save the classics of his country

Few people could be better placed – the 31-year-old has made movies with his father and grandfather.

In 2012, Maung Okkar realized with horror that his family's original reels were irreparably damaged while others were slowly disintegrating in his cellar.

"Some movies could not be restored and, for me, it was as if I had lost one of my parents". "I learned that there were other old movies that were not well maintained and I decided to do it myself."

After receiving training in restoration and archiving in Italy, he launched "Save Myanmar Film" in 2017 with a group of

Their slogan is "Every Second Counts!" And they aim to find and keep as much old reels and other cinematographic accessories – including cameras, projectors and movie posters – as possible.

exhibition and screenings organized by the group in May in the prestigious old parliament building of Yangon, and plans are underway to restore a third film

Time is running out, all films still in place are still piled up 24-hour air conditioning is an improvement over the past, but the temperature, at 16 degrees Celsius (61 degrees Fahrenheit), is still far above the optimum level of four degrees Celsius.

The actress Grace Swe Zin Htaik, 65, starred in several of Myanmar's greatest movies in the '70s and' 80s and faces the challenge of organizing the 100th anniversary of the & 100 100 100 100 100 100 100. The film industry of the country

how to value old movies, "she says nostalgically while tracing her finger along the dilapidated shelves that house the remains of the country's film heritage.

"(Through) the old movies, we can see our history, we can see our culture, we can see our identity and our values. "

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