Film, the Living Record of our Memory (2023)
Director: Inés Toharia Terán Run Time: 120 min. Release Year: 2022
Starring: Ann Adachi-Tasch, Benjamin Chowkwan Ado, Margaret Bodde, Serge Bromberg, Te-Ling Chen
Country: Spain, Canada
Language: English, French, Japanese, Catalan, Arabic, Spanish
About the film:
Best Documentary, 2021 Cambridge Film Festival
Official Selection, 2022 Sitges Film Festival
Official Selection, 2021 DOC NYC
Why are we still able to watch moving images captured over 125 years ago?
Film archivists, curators, technicians and filmmakers from around the world explain what film preservation is and why it is needed. Our protagonists are custodians of film whose work behind the scenes safeguards the survival of motion pictures. It is a task they undertake based on their closely held belief in the artistic and cultural value of the moving image, in tune with a shared mantra that a film might one day transform someone’s life. This documentary is an homage to them all and sheds some light on their critical undertaking, as much of our filmed history has already been lost forever.
“invites us to consider the ways movies have become essential to the human experience”
Film, The Living Record of Our Memory (2023) highlights the unique challenges of maintaining film, the cultural and political barriers to preservation, and the surprising risks of digital preservation. In the film, we learn from experts including Costa-Gavras, Jonas Mekas, Patricio Guzmán, Ken Loach, Bill Morrison, Fernando Trueba, Wim Wenders, and appearances by Martin Scorsese, Barbara Rubin, Idrissa Ouédraogo, Ridley Scott, and Ousmane Sembene.
About the filmmaker:
Inés Toharia Terán is a Spanish filmmaker who specializes in documentaries. After completing her studies in literature and film, she received a grant to pursue her filmmaking training in the United Kingdom, eventually specializing in film preservation with a Fulbright scholarship in the United States. She has worked at film archives and on cultural preservation projects across the world, and collaborated in the setting up of the first edition of FiSahara (Western Sahara International Film Festival) at the Sahrawi refugee camps. She has curated exhibitions and screenings, worked as a photographer, covered major international film festivals, and teaches and writes about film history.
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