HAVANA, August 28 (Jesús Zúñiga) – The Cuban Cinematheque will issue a call for help in conserving film materials threatened by decay during the forthcoming Latinamerican Film festival in December.
The Cinematheque, founded in 1961, has in its collection over 80,000 rolls of film and over 6,000 titles, according to Omar González, the president of the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry. The only comparable collections in Latin America are in México, Argentina, Uruguay
and Brasil.
González said that the work required would cost about 150,000 dollars. The Cinematheque has in its collection samples of all Cuban film production dating back to 1909; the first Cuban silent feature "La Virgen de la Caridad" by Ramón Peón, and all recent Cuban
films. In addition the Cinematheque holds a significant Latin American collection, in many cases placed there by film makers whose own countries don’t have comparable facilities.
González said the main problem areas in film preservation are climatic: 80 degree heat and 70 percent relative humidity and a high degree of atmospheric pollution. He cited "mechanical damage, dirt and bacteria, image loss and sound distortion" among the instances of decay.
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