On Monday, 20th of July, as part of the Pula PROfessional programme, a round table meeting entitled "Save our past" about the problem of film restoration and the digitalisation of the Croatian archive of film heritage, was held at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. In fact, the complete restoration and digitalisation of only one feature film title costs about 140,000 Kuna. Only 24 film titles, which makes only about 8 percent of all feature films, have been digitally restored and stored saving them from decay. These terrible figures, highlighted at the round table, only take into consideration feature films. The ratio between recorded and preserved is much worse among documentaries, animated and short films of all sorts.
After a dynamic discussion that touched on a number of issues, film professionals, experts and participants of the round table on the problem of restoration and digitalisation of Croatian film heritage, including Vladimir Sojisavljević, Assistance to the Minister for Culture, proposal, agreed that given the alarming state of the classic Croatian films copies, the establishment of a working group which will work with the Ministry of Culture is urgent. They proposed the creation of an action plan for the restoration of selected films over a short-term period during which a long-term strategy will be organised to plan the restoration, implementation and the provision of financial resources.
The round table was attended by: Hrvoje Hribar – Croatian Audio Visual Centre, Sanja Ravlić – Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Vladimir Stojsavljević – Ministry of Culture, Vlatka Lemić – Croatian National Archive, Zlatko Draganović – Croatian National Archive, Carmen Lhotka – Croatian Cinemateque, Danilo Šerbedžija – Association of Croatian Film Directors, Jasminka Božinovska Živalj – Croatian Radio Television, Vinko Grubišić - Jadran Film, Nenad Puhovski - Factum Production and Zagreb DOX, Tom Vujnović - Vizije d.o.o. – Restoration Studio, Ljubo Tomanović – Europe Media Nest, Bojan Čobanić – lawyer and Aleksandar Erdeljanović – Yugoslavian Cinemateque.
As part of Pula PROfessional, 62nd Pula Film Festival educational and professional programmes, three round tables will be held and, besides the problem of digitalising film material, the discussion will be about the cooperation between Pula Film Festival with universities, colleges and academies and the involvement of students in Festival Programmes through various activities. At the last round table the discussion will be on film festivals in general and how film can reach a wider audience after the festival’s life. As part of the film professionals and students of audio-visual activities programmes, a total of 23 professional events will be held during the Festival.
