On Saturday 21 September, the CineGouna Bridge held its first master class titled ‘Renovation and Preservation: Everything Old is New Again!’ by founder of the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) Sandra Schulberg, moderated by Jay Weissberg.

 

The IFP is America’s largest association of independent filmmakers.

 

Schulberg is also the founder and president of IndieCollect, a non-profit organisation that aims to restore American independent cinema. She worked as a producer for various internationally acclaimed films like Waiting for the Moon (1987).

 

“If we succeed in building a good and strong film industry, we have to find the strong infrastructure to appropriately preserve and store the material,” Schulberg said.

 

“IndieCollect is focused on working with the original filmmakers before they pass away, but unfortunately, we lose tens of original films every week with the death of its original filmmaker.”

 

“Restoration faces many challenges due to limited budgets. Obtaining the negative of the films is another challenge because most of the original materials have been stored in very bad condition, where sometimes it is stored in home fridges to preserve its quality.”

 

“Establishing a database is as significant as the film restoration itself, where those films become reachable on search engines,” she said, adding that an agreement has been signed between her foundation and Google, which will provide the database for restored films.