Screening: Thursday, October 4, 8:30pm
Venue: Francesca Beale Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Series: NYFF50: Cinema Reflected
There are many champions of film out there—people all over the world who work tirelessly to ensure that cinema is appreciated and preserved in its truest form. To call P.K. Nair one of those people is an understatement, as he is the founder and patron saint of the National Film Archive of India. Yes, India, a country that turns out almost 1,000 films per year—and he believes every one of them deserve preservation. Because of Nair, whose fascination with cinema began at the age of eight when he sat nestled on the (as he describes) shimmering white sand floor of a movie house watching movie after movie, many of India’s most treasured films—and yes, even some clunkers—have been saved, including nine of the 1,700 silent films that were made before “talkies” existed.
Celluloid Man, directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (who, in addition to filmmaking, also believes heavily in the preservation and restoration of films), paints an in-depth portrait of not only Nair’s work in archiving, but also shows how influential of a mentor he was to generations of filmmakers who studied at the Archive, including Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and many other Indian New Wave filmmakers to whom he exposed Tarkovsky, Fellini, and Ozu, and believed they could make similar films, if not better ones. The reflections of Nair by these and other Indian filmmakers are among the highlights of the film, as is seeing Nair walk through rooms of reels of film recollecting his favorite scenes and knowing exactly in which reel of film a specific scene can be found. Yet, the real treasures of Celluloid Man are the one-on-one interviews with Nair as he explains the magic of cinema to help others view the world in which they live, coupled with preserved scenes from Indian cinema’s past.
Limité Rating: 5/5
Director: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
Genre: Documentary
Country: India
Runtime: 164 min.
The 50th New York Film Festival runs from September 28 – October 14, 2012.
Follow Limité Film Contributor Curtis John on Twitter (@MediaManWatch) and check out his blog, brotherfromadiffrentworld.tumblr.com.
