Bringing movies back to life

Ella Al-Shamahi talks to women from Italy and US about the craft of film restoration and the importance of bringing movies, especially those by women, back to life.

Sandra Schulberg is the founder and president of IndieCollect – a nonprofit in the US that has restored more than 85 films since 2016 and rescued thousands of abandoned film negatives. She describes the independent movies they care for as ‘orphans’ and says it’s vital to keep these films alive as they’re not just cinematic heritage, they’re cultural history.

Italian-born Elena Nepoti is the film conservation manager at the British Film Institute National Archive. She’s particularly focussed on the restoration of films from the silent era and is currently managing an ongoing major project – restoring a series of Sherlock Holmes pictures from the 1920s which were given approval of Arthur Conan Doyle himself.

Produced by Hannah Dean and Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Elena Nepoti, courtesy Elena Nepoti. (R), Sandra Schulberg credit Barbara Katz.)