TODAY

The opening ceremony of MEMORY! International Film Heritage Festival took place on October 28, 2014 in Yangon. It will last 6 days till November 2, 2014, with free admission for all. The event will offer a selection of 9 classics from around the world, selected according to the theme of Laughter. From USA, Mongolia, France, Japan, UK…

Memory! International Film HeritageFestival dedicated to classics, an open window on the world. Some of those films are blockbusters since their first release and went everywhere in the world since then. Some of them seldom left their own country. It is the very first Reprise of MEMORY! International Film Heritage Festival, a cinema event fully dedicated to the films of the past, unique in Asia.

The MEMORY! Festival was created in 2013. Two main editions took place in Cambodia in June 2013 and June 2014. The success of such an unusual event dedicated to classics,  leaded the festival organization to set a “Reprise”  – meaning a selection of the 2014 programming around the theme of Laughter – in othercountries. And we are delighted that Myanmar welcomes this very first Reprise.

The motivation for creating such an event dedicated to film heritage relies on the importance to preserve memory and enable access to this heritage.

Films are endangered everywhere in the world if they are not well preserved (notably by respecting humidity and heat control). Over 90% of films around the world made before 1929 are lost forever, as well as half of all American films made before 1950.

As films are part of the memory of a nation and humanity, they need to be taken care of. That means collecting them, searching for them when they are considered to be lost and preserving them in safe locations. Some films may benefit from a digitization and —for the few lucky ones— from a full restoration, but this is a long and expensive process. However all films should be looked after, no matter if they are minor or major works, fictions or documentaries, newsreel footage or rushes. This memory is a heritage of a nation and furthermore a world heritage. And future generations should be able to have access  it.

There are very few festivals in the world dedicated to film heritage and, until MEMORY! Project, they only took place in Europe and America such as Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Lumičre in Lyon or MoMA Film Preservation Festival in New York.  This is why MEMORY! International Film Heritage Festival was created in 2013 by NGOs MEMORY Cinema Association and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage in order to set up the very first festival dedicated to Cinema Heritage in Asia. The aim is to establish an annual event dedicated to film heritage, reaching both large audience and international professionals, with Reprise in some countries.  The MEMORY! Reprise in Yangon is organized by NGO MEMORY Cinema Association and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage with Institut français de Birmanie.

The partners of this event in Yangon are Embassy of France, Mingalar Cinema Group, Inalco, British Council, Embassy of Japan and Yangon Film School.