The idea that you should actively conserve films and the history of cinema only took hold in the 1930s. In the 1940s and 1950s, almost every country set up a national film archive aimed at conserving films made in that country for posterity and restoring these where necessary.
Celluloid Man is about P.K. Nair, who set up the Indian National Film Archive in 1964 and worked to collect as many Indian films as possible. Almost all the 1,700 silent films made in India were lost, but Nair did manage to save a few. He is also an indefatigable promoter of cinema, which, to him, is the same as life itself. He screened not only Indian films, but also foreign ones and influenced many budding directors this way.
In Celluloid Man, he talks about his life and his obsession for film. Others are interviewed about Nair’s importance to the conservation of Indian film heritage.
Film details
- Country of production
- India
- Year
- 2012
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 164"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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