THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala State Chalachitra Academy’s (KSCA) archive got a lot richer in content on Saturday with a 50-year-old contribution by master filmmaker Fernando E Solanas himself. The Argentinian filmmaker presented KSCA the original reel of the frames captured during the filming of world-renowned classic ‘The Hour of the Furnaces’ (1968) before leaving the state. The director was honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the recently concluded International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
“This original reel will be a great addition to our archives. Whilst we buy classic movies, this is the very first time a master filmmaker himself has presented us with a gem. For the academy, it is a very proud moment,” said Mahesh Panchu, secretary of KSCA. The highly acclaimed political movie by Solanas and Octavio Getino delves into the socio-political situation of Argentina between 1945 and 1968. His films were screened at the festival in the ‘Towards a Third Cinema’ category’.
The academy is on a mammoth archiving initiative and has been collecting a vast set of resources pertaining to Malayalam films, along with movies of filmmakers from around the world.
The original copy will be restored and digitised, following which it will be made available for screening. “Since it is a 50-year-old copy, there are chances of it getting destroyed if we directly put it in the projector. Hence, we are going to restore it. It is a great achievement for the academy” said Mahesh Panchu.
According to Panchu, over 5,000 DVDs of international movies have been added to the academy’s collection. Almost 3,500 films, out of the 6,000 movies released in the 90 years of Malayalam film, has been collected.