report on Digital Archive Project for the Preservation and Application of Taiwan Cinema

“Film as dream, film as music”. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.
-Ernst Ingmar Bergman

Film dreams of the Taiwanese
In Taiwan a group of people dream of creating a national level film culture center with complete organization and specialized division of labor. Chinese Taipei Film Archive has an ideal storage environment for saving rolls of film, images, relics and materials from different periods for posterity. With these archives as the foundation, academic research, teaching and promotion units and performance hall have been established. Through exchange, learning research, promotion and application, the value and influence of images are brought fully into play, allowing people to understand the diversity of this land, its rich history and cultural characteristics. 

When Zhong Guo-hua, Section Chief of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive’s Information Section, talked of this dream to TELDAP E-newsletter staff his passion and desire were reflected by the sparkle that came to his eye, however, for the staff of the Archive there is a long road to achieving this dream. This year the cutting of its budget has led to worries that the leasing of storage space might be affected. The staff of the Archive make every effort to find space, manpower and resources to ensure that the film archives are suitably stored. In 2007, the Chinese Taipei Film Archive joined TELDAP, implementing the Taiwan Digital Movie Archives and Promotion Program, digitizing film archives and aiming, through the establishment of the Database of Taiwan Cinema, to provide a platform for the general public to browse, search, view and share. 

At the end of 2011, just after the Golden Horse Film Festival had ended, we visited the Chinese Taipei Film Archive’s Shulin film warehouse where we invited Zhong Guo-hua and Ms Wang Zu-pei to share with us their experiences during the Program’s implementation and their thoughts.

Entering a treasure chest of Taiwanese film

Section Chief Zhong began by saying “the Chinese Taipei Film Archive has the most completely preserved and diverse collection of moving images in Taiwan, bringing together party, government and military film archives.” Ms Wang went on to say:” After coming to work here I realized that the things I had seen since I was small had all been recorded and were stored in images. These films are a precious national cultural asset.

The Shulin film warehouse is in an industrial area and, after going along lanes and alleys, we reached the warehouse, which is very spacious because it is in a factory building.On one side were several projectors and, on the other, was the storyboard for the animated film that was unfinished by director Hu Jin-quan, “Zhang Yu Boils the Sea”. Section Chief Zhong led us to the room where a collection of items related to the director are stored. The boxes of archives have been categorized and are labeled with their content and collection number.

In the next room, staff were sorting film posters and using a machine to digitize them to establish digital archives.

On the walls, the numerous work processes and event posters relate the journey of the staff of the Archive during the implementation of the Digital Archive Project for the Preservation and Application of Taiwan Cinema

After the tour, curious, I asked Mr. Zhong what the classic works in the collection are and whether there are any real “treasures” that stand out from the rest. It seems the questions were overly simple so they weren’t easy to answer. After thinking for a while he said “If you want to look at it like that it is often said that rare things are precious” so, in terms of age and rarity, only one copy existing, Wu Feng, made in 1927, was Taiwan’s first color wide screen drama and so has important historical significance; there is also “South to Taiwan” made during the Japanese Colonial Period which is a detailed record of local scenery and things, and is important evidence for researching local development in Taiwan. 

The Chinese Taipei Film Archive is the only unit in Taiwan with the specific responsibility for collecting, restoring, preserving and researching films made in Taiwan and for many years has made every effort with regards to the collecting, sorting and preserving of film cultural assets. It has 13,853 old Taiwanese films in its collection, including news films, documentaries and dramas made by Taiwan Film Co., news films, documentaries and dramas made by China Film Co and Taiwanese language dramas made by various private companies. When the door of the storeroom we opened, we were greeted by a rush of cold air. As we walked down the aisles looking for familiar names it was as if we had come close to the source of Taiwanese film and were witnessing the tracks of its development.

The influence and benefit of digitization
“Digitization is a method that allows us to archive films better.” Wang Zu-pei of the Information Section said that participation in TELDAP has, on the one hand, allowed standard operating procedures to be established for archiving and, on the other, also changed the Archive’s arching principles.

During the implementation of the digitization program many young people from different backgrounds with different specialties were involved. The Archive became a formal member of the FIAF in 1995, making it one of the few organizations in Taiwan that is a member of an international film organization. International exchange and reference to international digitization technology and standards provided everyone with an opportunity to learn and allowed the film aesthetics and film history elements that were learned to be introduced to the public, allowing film to be discussed from different angles.

Also, in the process of digitization of film, images and materials, the Archive has, at the same time, reviewed its archiving principles. Digital archives make management of archive convenient and provide a more accurate basis on which to judge the main direction. What is precious? What is important? What needs archiving before it is too late. Digital archives provide more reference to the Archive, making archiving work more complete and forward looking.

See the world in films
The idea of the founder of the French Film Archive, Henri Langlois was “the film of the world, the world of film.” He believed that a film archive is not a place just to watch films but also a mecca for studying film art and history.

Section chief Zhong thinks in a similar way. He said with feeling “There are many hints in a film and it is likely that a plot in film or scene moves a person and changes their view of life.” Films contain many clues about life and can allow us to see the kaleidoscope of life and understand life while, at the same time, providing various elements of society such as people, stories, history, land and culture, combining these elements and enlightening us.

To allow more people to get close to the collection of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive and find the materials and archives they want, the Archive has made an effort to develop new interfaces to allow its resources to be seen and used. Subjects including Films in Taiwanese news films, Crazy about film: Ou Wei, Digital film beauty parlor, Tour of Treasure Island, Lee Hsing’s Luggage etc., have been successively established on the website; with people and events linking related stores and materials, the vivid, lively  and diverse interfaces allow us to explore the world of film in depth.

Subject: Lee Hsing’s Luggage http://www.ctfa.org.tw/lee/

 
Subject: Films in Taiwanese news films http://www.ctfa.org.tw/tai_image/index.html

Future outlook
The 2011 Conference on Taiwan History and Image organized by the Archive came to a close in November 2011. During the conference there was wide-ranging discussion about all aspects of film by experts and scholars, such as looking at the modernization of Taiwan from the angle of Taiwanese films of the 1950s and 60s, or exploring how anti-Japanese Hakka heroes were reproduced in film. Scholars in different fields engaged in lively discussions, the exchange and interaction showing us the lively and colorful face of Taiwanese film.

The words of Professor Lu Fei-yi still resonate:” The relationship of memory, imagination and film, the sealed picture give us a very good path to understand this society and film is the best medium for sealing memory.”

Next year TELDAP will come to an end and the Archive staff are now preparing to display the results of participation. “Release and album? Make a documentary? Hold an exhibition” As she spoke Ms Wang we looked on full of expectation. No matter what form the Archive decides on, it is already quite certain that Database of Taiwan Cinema will go online in late spring this year and that a results exhibition will be held at the end of the year.

“Everything is being born, everything is moving” Member of the Archive’s digitization project team Chen Ying-jie used a line from director Lee Hsing’s film Our Neighbors to share with us her thoughts on film digitization in the 2011 Conference on Taiwan History and Image. These words shows us that all that is aroused by digital archives work, will, by developing and extending stories,  continue to attract more people and, through digging, exploring, interaction and sharing, more diverse value and meaning will be created.