The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

PRESS AND MEDIA ARCHIVES - Hungarian Film Archives by József Bana

complete films cover shots used as work material and unidentified pictures because of the lack of certified sources. More or less usual news of the beginning also belong to here. Daily newspapers and other newspapers that considered their task to broadcast fresh information started to shoot news already at the beginning. For example the weekly news of the 'Est' (Evening) daily papers was authentic material about the events of civil revolution in 1918. It was replaced by Red Report Film during the time of Hungarian Soviet Republic. These early silent film shots are carefully watched pieces of the collection. 'Keeping them alive' demands further renewal after the past decades. The once coloured pictures have lost their colours and are worn out and the inserts need to be completed. The film material itself is fragmented, too. Because of the torn and imperfect perforation they are not good for projection. The first step of restoration was the safety saving of the original master-negative, then colouring the pictures chestnut brown. In the second step the inserts were drawn again and the missing parts were completed. Putting the originally uncut pictures together the whole news were completed. Mapping the Hungarian silent film age is not finished yet, documentaries are incomplete and only some films were left over. The material of motion pictures shot by different producing companies is arranged, their collection to one certain place started in 1949 so only a part of them could survive the two World Wars. Finding any silent or early sound film means a lot in our collection. HUNGARIAN FEATURE FILM COLLECTION From 1945 to present days Nearly each film from 1945 to 1978 can be found in the Archives. But because of the technically insufficient conditions of the films it means a great problem to restore and renew these films. The Hungarian experts of the film industry called the Foundation for the Past and Future of the Hungarian Film into being in 1989. In the case of films between 1945 and 1962 the basic aim was to save the films, in the case of the films from before 1963 the films shot on nitro material had to be saved on safety film material. Rewriting nitro films was necessary because nitro material starts to disintegrate sooner or later and is destroyed. 140 black and white films were renewed from this age. The film that is imperfect or is in a very bad condition needs to be restored. What technical equipment is needed for restoration is decided after examining properties (usually negatives). Some films could only be saved with special procedures. The famous film 'Körhinta' (Merry-goround in English) by Zoltán Fábri was restored shot by shot, sound restoration