Published on June 24, 2005

Leading local film lab Technicolor (Thailand) Co recently announced plans to help the National Film Archive (NFA) – which has an insufficient budget – restore hundreds of Thai classics.

Wednesday’s agreement marks the first public-private cooperation for the NFA since it was founded in 1984.

Under the plan, Technicolor will restore two damaged films annually and hand them over to the NFA. The first two classics include “The King of the White Elephant” and “Reua Pae” (The Boathouse).

The NFA receives Bt3 million a year for restoration work, but there are several hundred damaged films to be restored and only three staff working on restoration and preservation with outdated equipment.

“The Film Archive is like a hospital that receives a lot of patients but has no one to foot the bill, because everybody assumes it should be the government’s responsibility. I hope this pioneer project will inspire other private film companies to work with us,” said film archivist Dome Sukhavong.

He said the original negatives of the first two films were in very bad shape. But he added that the restoration shouldn’t be too expensive for those two, because “The King of the White Elephant” had been restored in 2001, although there were problems with sound quality that the film lab could help to enhance.

Dome said he believed Technicolor’s modern technology would be of great use in restoring the films.

On average, restoration for an old film costs between US$20,000 and $500,000 (between Bt821,000 and Bt20.51 million), depending on its condition.

Formerly known as Cinecolor, Technicolor offers a full-service motion-picture film libraries, including cleaning, repair and sound refurbishment and is the first Asian film lab to carry out restoration work.

“I have a natural love of film preservation and have worked in this field for the company for 10 years. It was one of my goals to get involved with the national archive. As a motion-picture company, I think we have an obligation to help,” said Technicolor’s managing director, Paul Stambaugh.

“The King of the White Elephant” was the first English-language Thai film and was produced and written by the late statesman Pridi Banomyong in 1940. The story was set against the backdrop of hostilities between the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and Burma. The original negative was damaged during WWII, but the NFA borrowed the 16mm print from the Library of Congress and copied it to a 35mm format.

Parinyaporn Pajee

The Nation

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