Preserving and Interpreting Culture Heritage: Lessons Learned from Film Restoration

Preserving and Interpreting Culture Heritage: Lessons Learned from Film Restoration
Author(s): Wang, Wenli and Cook, David A.
Year: 2004
Paper Number: GBS-DIA-2004-001
Goizueta Department: Decision and Information Analysis

Abstract

Only half of American films made before 1950 have survived, and this makes the preservation of what remains a pressing issue, but until very recently, the film industry made little effort to preserve its cultural heritage. With the DVD revolution, however, classics held by studio libraries became unexpectedly valuable, so that the majors were given a solid commercial reason to restore and preserve old movies facilitated by digital technologies. This has been a blessing to film history, but industry practice has provoked debates about the appropriateness of "modernizing" certain aspects of classical Hollywood films. Fundamentally, there are three modes of digital restoration practice: a) adhering to the absolute integrity of the original, whic h includes reproducing age-specific technological "deficiencies," b) enhancing the original to conform to contemporary tastes and expectations, and c) working with the original filmmakers to rebuild the film in ways that respect its artistic integrity but allow the filmmakers to take advantage of contemporary technologies to improve their work. The true nature of "authenticity" is thus a theoretical as well as a practical question, but film is inarguably an organic product which can be viewed through a variety of lenses and social and critical understandings at different points in time. Ultimately, the lessons learned from film restoration can be extended to other cultural fields: 1) commercialization is the first order for both funding and marketing, and that preserving cultural heritage is a beneficial side-effect; and 2) different interpretations of the film artifact are arguable but allowed because they depend on the driving forces behind the restoration/preservation act and the stakeholders' interests.