Nitratos Project: Cinemateca Brasileira recovers and makes available the oldest film collection

A Brazilian Cinematheque presented the results of the Nitrates Project this Tuesday, 28th, in an event that was attended by government authorities, sponsors and the press. Of the approximately three thousand cellulose nitrate materials found in Cinematheque1,893 films were recovered, cataloged and digitized.

The initiative is part of the Viva Cinemateca, which has generated projects for the preservation and restoration of collections under the institution’s custody. The technical activities of Brazilian Cinematheque were paralyzed for almost two years, until Friends of the Cinematheque Society fully assume its management in 2021.

For the first time in more than seven decades, the organization received resources to revisit its collection of cellulose nitrates in order to catalogue, conserve and duplicate works from the 1900s to 1950s. Nitrates Project secured a contribution of R$17 million from sponsors, such as Shell, through the Culture Incentive Law. Of the amount, R$13 million was subsidized only by the Vale Cultural Institute.

The money was used to revitalize the image and sound laboratory, acquire blank films for duplicating the material in nitrate and hire more than 30 professionals who carried out around 5,500 research studies.

Names like Rodrigo Archangelo, Tamara Santos, Giuliana Ghiraldelli, Iago Cordeiro Ribeiro, Igor Andrade Pontes, Marcella Grecco de Araújo, Yasmin Gabrielle Rahmeier Souza, Felipe Queiroz Correa e Castro, Leandro Sampaio de Melo, Luisa Malzoni, Marcela Sonim It is Mariana Menna joined the team.

What has changed

Among the researchers’ discoveries about the collection of Cinematheque they are Noise at the University (1943), film by Watson Macedo given up as lost, and Genesio’s Troubles (1940), which will be shown at Pordenone Silent Film Festival, in Italy. Work of Silvino Santos, Amazon and Rio Exhibition of 1922 — a compilation of images captured between 1919 and 1926 — also contributes to the understanding of Brazilian history. Ceremonies and Church Festival in S. Maria (1909) was revealed to be the oldest documentary in the collection.

O Viva Cinemateca replaced the entity in congresses of the International Federation of Film Archives, expanding dialogue with cinema libraries around the world. The cinematheque in Rome, for example, returned around 700 cans of Brazilian films. As Nitrates ProjectThe Brazilian Cinematheque It also received another 150 new nitrate materials, but does not have enough resources to restore the films.

The nitrate collection is, of course, deteriorating. The support that easily self-combusts was reevaluated precisely to prevent fires, such as those that occurred in 1957, 1969, 1982 and 2016, from recurring.

The duplication and digitization of titles found in the Cinematheque It is one of the ways to ensure that the history of Brazilian cinema is not lost. In 2016 alone, it is estimated that the fire in the cellulose nitrate collection caused the loss of almost a thousand works.

O Nitrates Project, which mainly investigated newsreels, should also generate a film exhibition. The titles are being made available in the Cultural Content Bank, and the general director of Brazilian Cinematheque, Dora Mourãosaid that a streaming service by the Ministry of Culture is among its plans.

Courses

In addition to the technical care of the films, researchers at Cinematheque are sharing their experiences during the Nitrates Project in training courses. The first of them, Pioneering Women of Cinematook place in December last year and was taught by Marcela Grecco.

Another, called Cinematographic Culture and its History: cinema libraries, film societies, festivals, filmographies and historiographieswon a place in Cinematheque — and on YouTube — at the end of April.

The most recent course offered by the organization taught its subscribers everything from accessing the Cultural Content Bank to understanding the Brazilian Filmography database. Newsreels, documentaries, fiction, home films and advertising for short, medium and feature films were analyzed.

The researchers rotated seats in the Oscarito room during the four-day course and were very thorough in presenting the work that has been developed over the course of a year. Even though they have made countless discoveries about the nitrate collection and Brazilian history, many gaps need to be filled. Therefore, the team at Brazilian Cinematheque invites professionals to continue their long research into this type of support.

In June, interested parties will be able to attend the course Newsreels in Brazil: news and entertainment in Brazilian cinemas in the 20th century. It is worth remembering that, although registration is sold out, it is possible to watch the event on YouTube or risk a visit to the venue itself. Cinematheque to check if there are available vacancies for dropouts.