"From grain to pixel. Cinema and Archives in Transition" (Guiovanna Fossati)

Description

Presentation of the book “From grain to pixel. Cinema and Archives in Transition ”(Guiovanna Fossati)

In recent years, publications in Castilian about cinema have multiplied and diversified, both in the academic and journalistic spheres, both on paper and in digital media. However, we can still see important shortcomings in terms of preservation, conservation and restoration of audiovisual materials in the Spanish language. The edition that we present tries to modify this very limited landscape, which contrasts with the volume of material available in French, Italian and English. ⁣

Unlike other materials in Spanish, Giovanna Fossati's book is not a technical manual or a compendium of “good practices”, but rather it elaborates an in-depth reflection on the contemporary problems of archives, museums and audiovisual heritage institutions in the face of the arrival of new digital technologies. Part of an exhaustive state of the question where it highlights and synthesizes the different speeches and positions taken that were being built in this regard from different sectors. The author also elaborates her own conclusions, her own synthesis of the debate and exemplifies with documented case studies.

The particular richness of Fossati's gaze is based on this double anchor between academic research and the practical experience of years of managing, conserving, restoring and curating films at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Eleven years after its first edition, we present this expanded and revised version. Its value as an x-ray of a transition that is still going through the audiovisual world as a whole is indisputable.