PNCA seeks contribution of film prints for archive

Islamabad : Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) has the mandate for the promotion and development of films in Pakistan. In this connections PNCA has already took various measures for the promotion and education of film. PNCA successfully started a first ever one year online certificate course of Film Production.

Film experts from USA, Germany and Pakistan are teaching Pakistani students the art of film production. Pakistan is the custodian of 10,000 year’s old legacy of art and culture and possesses tangible and intangible cultural treasures in abundance to show the world and preserve for the generations to come.

Throughout the history, film has been a powerful force in Pakistani culture and national life, often shaping our very notion of contemporary events. Our challenge now is to appreciate its fullness and diversity and to protect our rich heritage for the study and enjoyment of future generations.

PNCA has started making arrangements for acquiring feature films for its film archives. Pakistan has made close to 6,000 plus feature films since 1948. The earlier films made on Nitrate Material from the late-forties and early-50 have been lost forever. This apart, many other films are now also not available. This is a loss of our film culture and rich heritage.

In setting up a Film Archive, we need support to make films available for posterity. This needs long-term planning and cooperation from the entire film fraternity individual collectors film producers, distributors, exhibitors and those who have contributed in any capacity.

The films acquired from respective quarters would only be used for occasional free screening for education, training and reference purposes. There would be absolutely no commercial use whatsoever. It may not be possible for PNCA, at this time, to preserve and maintain 35 mm prints however Digital format is here, a good quality films on VHS, BETA, DVD, DCP are good options for PNCA to convert and save our past film treasure and heritage for the generation to come. Films posters, press books and photographs (mostly exhibited in cinemas during theatrical release) and scripts, film lyrics in print are equally important for the archives.

PNCA has called all interested individual collectors and organisations to join in this campaign and become a part of the film archives in saving our glorious and worthy film past.

It is to reiterate that PNCA and Pakistan Film Producers Association are working together to sing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the promotion of film in Pakistan.