An Unforgettable Premiere at the 13th Festival of Albanian Film
November 3, 2012 The restoration premiere of Nëntori i Dytë opened the festival to a packed house on the evening of Nov 3, 2102 at the Millenium Theater in downtown Tirana, Albania. The event was covered by nearly every press outlet in the city. The press had received an advance show reel featuring 4 minutes of the restoration in the glorious colors that Albanians had never before seen, and the press couldn't wait to see more. The film had never before screened as its original creators had intended. This was due to the lack of sufficient chemicals in Albania for processing film elements in the 1980s. While the original camera negative held all the information that Colorlab was able to restore in the new digital version, the original projection prints for this film have always only shown a fraction of the visual information that the original camera negative holds. The festival opened with remarks by the film festival's director Artan Minarolli; Albanian Minister of Culture, Youth, Tourism and Sport, Aldo Bumci; and the film festival's president and one of the original actors in Nëntori i Dytë Robert Ndrenika. These remarks were followed by an introduction to Nëntori i Dytë by the director of the Albanian national film archive, Elvira Diamanti, and ACP Board members Mark Cousins, Iris Elezi, Regina Longo and Eriona Vyshka. The quality of the restoration wowed everyone in the theater, including Minister of Culture Aldo Bumci, Lionel Konomi (the DP for Nëntori who flew in from Italy for the event), Festival President Robert Ndrenika (an actor, who played the role of Hakiu in Nëntori) and several of the festival’s jury members as well as many legendary figures in Albanian cinema who came out for the event. After the final credits rolled, festival director Artan Minarolli stood up and said that he could only hope for every film in the Albanian film archives to one day be restored the way Colorlab and ACP had restored Nëntori i dytë. This screening also marked the first ever screening of the film with English language subtitles. This adaptation was the work of Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci, with the assistance of translators Rain Nikolla and Erald Ylli. |
After the end credits rolled, in which we were also able to reinsert the name of a child actor originally removed from the 1982 credits due to his father’s anti-Statist politics, all members in the audience who had a part to play in the original and the restoration returned to the stage to celebrate our joint achievement. The enthusiasm spilled out of the theater and into the street as the film festival was now officially open and the crowds were lining up to celebrate Albanian cinema in all its colors. Here are just a few of the news reports from the premiere screening:
http://gazeta-shqip.com/lajme/2012/11/05/filmi-60-mije-euro-per-nentorin-e-dyte/ http://www.kohaditore.com/?page=1,5,121869 http://www.botasot.info/kultura/195118/nentori-i-dyte-si-i-ri-60-mije-euro-restaurimi/ http://www.shqiptarja.com/kultura/2730/nentori-i-dyte-cel-te-shtunen-festivalin-e-filmit-132443.html http://gazeta-shqip.com/lajme/2012/11/02/nentori-i-dyte-cel-festivalin-e-filmit/ http://www.alblajme.com/hyrje/100-vjet-pavaresi/4292-pavaresia-celet-festivali-i-filmit-shfaqet-i-restauruar-filmi-nentori-i-dyte.html http://www.top-channel.tv/artikull.php?id=245398 The Albanian Cinema Project still has much work to do, with screenings of our first restoration now rolling out across Albania, Kosovo, Turkey, Italy, France, the UK and the US from January 2013 to April 2013. Our goal is to bring this film and some of the ACP team members to each of the venues in order to continue to increase public awareness, support and most importantly funding for our ongoing work. We still need your help to achieve our goal of saving all the films in the Albanian National Film Archive! |
The First Images of the Work Flow Test for Nëntori i dytë
opening title slate of the film
September 28, 2012
There has been a frenzy of activity on our first preservation effort this month. We have finally finished the complete translation of the film from Albanian to English so that we can strike a subtitled print for international distribution. The team of four translators in Tirana, Albania has been working round the clock on this. It is important to be sure that we convey the nuances of the original Albanian language version in our subtitle script, and this is no easy task. It is not just a matter of getting the words right. Because we do not have the funding to bring the translation team from Tirana to Colorlab's facilities in the Washington, DC metro area, we have secured the assistance of the Honorable Albanian Ambassador to the US, Mr. Gilbert Galanxhi. He and his team at the consular offices of the Albanian Embassy in Washington, DC will personally work with Colorlab to ensure that the subtitling work goes smoothly. We are so pleased and grateful for this transnational cooperation!
And now, a few words about the first color test. Please keep in mind that this is a TEST, the lab has yet to do any color correction and these are images generated by a test of the digital workflow. To keep this from getting too technical, suffice it to say that the color will indeed be richer in our new film elements. But, already the archivists at AQSHF in Albania are really excited to see these images. The condition of the original camera negative and the positive elements at the archives in Tirana have always resulted in a print that seems as if it were dipped in a blue dye bath. Colorlab has already been able to correct this in a work flow test with the first reel of the film and we are excited to see these first glimpses of The Second November in tones that are much closer to the way the film was meant to be seen. Below are a few more images from this work flow test. We are certain the final product will be something worth watching and something that Albania will be talking about long after the curtain closes on our November 3, 2012 premiere at the 13th Festival of Albanian Film in the 100th Independence Year in Tirana, Albania.
There has been a frenzy of activity on our first preservation effort this month. We have finally finished the complete translation of the film from Albanian to English so that we can strike a subtitled print for international distribution. The team of four translators in Tirana, Albania has been working round the clock on this. It is important to be sure that we convey the nuances of the original Albanian language version in our subtitle script, and this is no easy task. It is not just a matter of getting the words right. Because we do not have the funding to bring the translation team from Tirana to Colorlab's facilities in the Washington, DC metro area, we have secured the assistance of the Honorable Albanian Ambassador to the US, Mr. Gilbert Galanxhi. He and his team at the consular offices of the Albanian Embassy in Washington, DC will personally work with Colorlab to ensure that the subtitling work goes smoothly. We are so pleased and grateful for this transnational cooperation!
And now, a few words about the first color test. Please keep in mind that this is a TEST, the lab has yet to do any color correction and these are images generated by a test of the digital workflow. To keep this from getting too technical, suffice it to say that the color will indeed be richer in our new film elements. But, already the archivists at AQSHF in Albania are really excited to see these images. The condition of the original camera negative and the positive elements at the archives in Tirana have always resulted in a print that seems as if it were dipped in a blue dye bath. Colorlab has already been able to correct this in a work flow test with the first reel of the film and we are excited to see these first glimpses of The Second November in tones that are much closer to the way the film was meant to be seen. Below are a few more images from this work flow test. We are certain the final product will be something worth watching and something that Albania will be talking about long after the curtain closes on our November 3, 2012 premiere at the 13th Festival of Albanian Film in the 100th Independence Year in Tirana, Albania.
Work Begins on Nëntori i dytë
September 4, 2012
Three boxes of original 35mm color film elements and 35mm optical sound elements for the film Nëntori i Dytë (The Second November) just arrived via EMS (Albanian Express Post) on the doorstep of Colorlab Film Corp. in Rockville, MD. Now, the meticulous work of restoring this film begins. The image to the left is a snapshot taken by Colorlab's general manager Dean Plionis of the first reel of the original camera negative. And, in fact, it is evident that this is the first scene of the film in which a young boy rushes down the street to his home to inform his family of the events that are unfolding in town. No need to give the entire story away here, since we are hoping this restored film will soon be making the rounds of theaters and eventually, in conjunction with the Albanian Film Archive, be released on DVD for personal and educational use. This will be the first version of The Second November to reach an international audience, thanks to the English language subtitles that will be created for this print. |
Currently, the translation work is almost complete. In Tirana, a young woman who is studying film at the Marubi Academy named Rain Nikolla has been hard at work on this task. The work will then be proofed by Iris Elezi before the script is sent off to our team in the US for the creation of a separate negative featuring only the subtitles that will then be synched with the newly struck image and sound elements. Thank goodness for digital technologies that we can use to work along with the tried and true technologies of analog film processing. Due to time constraints and financial constraints, we are unable to bring someone from the Albanian Film Archive to the US to time the subtitled print with the tehcnicians at Colorlab. So,Colorlab has devised a way of doing this in real time via video conference (Skype). Our team will record some of this work in progress to feature here on our website. Before the work of subtitling new elements can begin, Colorlab's technicians have much to do to inspect, repair and prepare the original production elements for a full scale restoration. This page will be updated as the work progresses, please check back soon to see how things are moving along. And in the meantime, here are few stills from circa 1981, behind the scenes on the set of The Second November. |
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The Lead actors of Nëntori i Dytë
Stills of Rozalina Bedo as Marigo and Sander Prosi as Ismail Qemaili, taken on the set of Nëntori i Dytë in 1981.
The Second November was shot on 35mm color film, but as late as the 1980s all still photography on set was still done in black and white. These images are test shots of two of the lead characters in costume.
The Second November was shot on 35mm color film, but as late as the 1980s all still photography on set was still done in black and white. These images are test shots of two of the lead characters in costume.
Behind the Camera with Director Viktor Gjika
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A Still from the Lost Episode of Nëntori i Dytë
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