Mar. 20, 2013 - Issue #909: Water Crisis
Provincial Archives Film Night
Audio-visual archivist Braden Cannon is speaking in terms of film, which has been on the proverbial chopping block since people began dabbling in digital back in the '70s. However, Cannon, along with countless other individuals involved in various areas of the film industry, believe film retains its merits. To spark discussion and raise awareness of the differences between each—which is often not apparent to the average viewer—the Provincial Archives is hosting a film night which will feature Film Is Dead; Long Live Film! a comparison of 16 mm and 35mm productions against their scanned and digitized counterparts. The latter half of the evening will be a digital screening of the 1963 film The Naked Flame.
"That 'long live film' is this optimistic cry that it may not carry the same weight, there may not be as many productions being made on film ... but every major studio in Hollywood is still sending out release prints on celluloid, so it's not as dire as it sounds," Cannon notes, referencing what he sees as the premature prediction of film's extinction. "As long as there's still this die-hard subset of folks who are going to continue making films or collecting films even, it's not going to go anywhere."
There are consistent arguments touting the pros and cons of film versus celluloid, and while esthetic value could be debated to death, Cannon maintains that film is the ideal medium when it comes to the preservation of moving images.
"Sure, digital cinema is easier in terms of distribution, it's cheaper, it's easier to get it up online, but we're at a point where if we keep going the way we're going with digital cinema without serious effort put into long-term thinking, we're going to have a cinematic dark-age, much like the teens and '20s where most of the films shot in the first three decades of the history of film have been lost," he says, adding this occurred due to lack of proper preservation and use of nitrate film. "If we keep going the way we are now, switching everything to digital without thinking long-term, these digital files will corrupt, they'll corrode and we'll lose them ... even if they do keep it, even if you put the effort into preserving it, the file could become obsolete."
Fri, Mar 22 (7 pm)
Film is Dead; Long Live Film!
The Naked Flame (9:30 pm)
Metro Cinema at the Garneau, Free
Film is Dead; Long Live Film!
Panel Discussion
Wed, Mar 27 (7 pm)
Provincial Archives of Alberta, Free
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