Photo: Sagar Shiriskar / 'Finding Film'

Celluloid ephemera

Preserving film in transition.

Sagar Shiriskar is a lens-based visual artist working with photography and film. More of his work can be seen on www.sagarshiriskar.com

Image-making on celluloid is a dying medium, cut short by the advent of digital technology. Purists still swear by it, but almost all major companies involved in the business of image-making have moved on to digital. No one knows how long we can continue to photograph or film on celluloid. Some hope it will return, while others say that it will be phased out completely.

A whole generation of photographers started photographing on analogue cameras before being compelled to switch to digital. As the years have passed, it has become more difficult to buy celluloid film and to process it. Professionals, amateurs and hobbyists alike talk of how exciting it was to wait for a film to be 'processed' at a laboratory, to see it after days, making the event of viewing the final images all the more exciting. Nostalgia, however, does not necessarily translate into choosing the medium that gave us beautiful, timeless images.

The vestiges of the celluloid medium that still remain – projection systems, printers, cameras and editing machines – have become almost obsolete. Some day they will be placed in a museum or sold as scrap, and their legacy will end. Most film technicians working with celluloid at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and different labs across India are now retiring, and for most of them the digital medium is a foreign concept and the process of filmmaking is only that which is created through film.

As a photographer, filmmaker and student of cinematography at FTII, this was a very personal project for me – to document surviving relics of film and the people who have worked with the medium to create a visual archive of these images. During our film school days we were in the middle of a transition from analogue to new digital technology. Being a part of the last few batches who were going to be filming on the celluloid medium, I hoped to explore the remnants of analogue filmmaking and to preserve the legacy of retiring technicians who have worked for over three decades with film.

Mr Veer, who has been in charge of the maintenance of all the cameras at the FTII for the past 39 years, is seen here with the Arriflex IIC camera.

Mr Deepak, who has been working as a projectionist at the FTII for years, is seen reading the manual of the new digital projector, which has been installed at the institute recently.

Mr Dalvi, who has been working in the editing department at the FTII for the past 39 years, is seen here demonstrating the workings of a Moviola vertical viewer (35mm) with sound.

The Debrie contact printer, which is not operational anymore. A few years ago, this printer was used by students for their projects.

This Debrie printer is from the iconic Prabhat studio era at FTII. It lies here, ready to be auctioned.

Mr Pradip, the grader at the FTII, who recently retired after 40 years of service, is seen here grading one of our student exercises shot on black and white Kodak film.

A Steenbeck editing suite which is used to edit both 16 mm and 35 mm film. Seen here is a still from one of actor Govardhan Asrani's student projects.

Mr Sachin, a projectionist at the FTII, is seen operating the Christie projector during the screening of the film Woodstock. It is a tradition to screen the film on print every New Year's Eve.

Mr Lagvankar, who has been working at the FTII for the past 40 years, arranges film stock kept in the storage vault at the FTII, which includes all diploma films made by the students of FTII. Some films in this vault date back to 1965 – 70.

A film being projected on a Tokiwa, a Japanese projector, at the NFAI (National Film Archive Of India). Seen here is a still from a Manipuri film 'Ishanou'.

Madhuri Dixit is seen on the screen dancing to the song 'Ek do teen' from the film 'Tezaab' as is projected on film print. Students dance on stage during the Holi festival night at FTII.