China Film Archive

The China Film Archive was founded in 1958 under the kind care of Comrade Zhou Enlai. It has gone through more than half a century of development. The administration of China Film Archive is subordinate to the State Administration of radio, film and television, and has close ties with the State Archives Bureau. In 1980, China Film Archive was incorporated as a full member of the International Federation of Film Archive (FIAF). In 1984, the film Research Institute of the former Institute of literature and art of the Ministry of culture was incorporated into the museum. Since then, it has been known as "China Film Archive" and "China Film Art Research Center".

China Film Archive

China Film Archive and China Film Art Research Center are national film archives and educational institutions for film theory research. The China Film Archive was established in 1958 and became a full member of the International Federation of Film Archive (FIAF) in 1980. It is an important platform for international exchange of Chinese films. In 1984, the film Research Institute of the former Institute of literature and art of the Ministry of culture (now the Chinese Academy of Art) was merged into the Chinese film art research center. In the same year, he founded contemporary film magazine (the core journal), and then successively established China Film Journal, film magazine and Yingman magazine. In 1985, it began to recruit postgraduates with master's degree in film history and theory (now drama, film and television). In 2010, it set up a postdoctoral research station, and in 2018, it added master of Arts (MFA).

introduce

China Film Archive and China Film Art Research Center are national film archives and educational institutions for film theory research. The China Film Archive was established in 1958 and became a full member of the International Federation of Film Archive (FIAF) in 1980. It is an important platform for international exchange of Chinese films. In 1984, the film Research Institute of the former Institute of literature and art of the Ministry of culture (now the Chinese Academy of Art) was merged into the Chinese film art research center. In the same year, he founded contemporary film magazine (the core journal), and then successively established China Film Journal, film magazine and Yingman magazine. In 1985, it began to recruit postgraduates with master's degree in film history and theory (now drama, film and television). In 2010, it set up a postdoctoral research station, and in 2018, it added master of Arts (MFA).

Main responsibilities

The museum is responsible for collecting, sorting out, researching and keeping the files and data formed in the process of film creation and production, such as the negative material, copy, screenplay, sub shot script, completed script, stills, posters and review materials of Chinese produced films, as well as keeping and making use of some copies of foreign films and relevant cultural data. It has achieved comprehensive development in many fields, such as the collection and utilization of film archives, film theory research, domestic and foreign film academic exchanges and film teaching, film newspaper publishing, etc. it is a film culture enterprise with film archives as the core, diversified business and functions. It has become one of the most important members of the international film industry with the largest collection of Chinese film images in the world. The museum has two large-scale film databases - Beijing Film Database and Xi'an Film Database, as well as film projection halls of different sizes and grades, film text and image database, video and CD-ROM audio-visual rooms.

Since 1958, the museum has begun to collect various kinds of film archives. Over the past 40 years, it has collected more than 300000 Chinese and foreign films of various periods, including more than 27200 films, more than 18000 sets of film materials, thousands of volumes of Chinese and foreign filmmakers' archives, and millions of Chinese and foreign film books, periodicals, stills, etc.

Business unit

The business departments in the library include: Data cataloging research department, film management and Technology Department, academic activity service department, external liaison office and film database. Based on the different characteristics of film materials, the museum has built a special warehouse with constant temperature of 10C, ± 1C, relative humidity of 55-65% and air conditioning facilities in Beijing and Xi'an, with a total area of 15000 square meters; there are technical workshops specialized in maintaining and copying film data, standard projection Hall of different specifications, video playing hall, academic seminar room and data reading room, etc.

scope of business

The library's services include data borrowing, copying, and inquiring about films, characters and the film industry. The electronic calculator cataloging management and network retrieval of archival data have been realized. The library has published reference books such as the general catalogue of Chinese films, the catalogue of Chinese art films and the catalogue of stock films, forming a set of management system for the collation, cataloguing, research and utilization of film archives. The museum has planned to hold special topics, special film observation and research activities and tour observation, showing about 3820 films and 1000 films and videos every year, with 684000 visitors. This paper systematically introduces the historical achievements of the development of Chinese films by holding such activities as "observation of Chinese excellent films in the 1930s" and "retrospective exhibition of Chinese films in the 1920s-1940s". It also held film retrospective exhibitions in more than 10 countries, including Britain, France, Italy, the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan, and held Chinese film retrospective exhibitions in more than 30 countries and regions. It introduced more than 100 excellent Chinese film works and promoted the exchange of Chinese and foreign film art. In 1980, the museum became a full member of the International Federation of film archive. So far, we have established business contacts with film data institutions in more than 30 countries and regions to exchange film and text data.

Historical chronology

1955-1967

Set up the Preparatory Office of China Film Archive, formulate policies and tasks, collect and rescue film materials

1955

(September)

Luo Guangda, general manager of China film distribution company, and Chen Shoumei, translator, received instructions from domestic telegrams during their participation in the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland on June 6, asking Luo Guangda to represent China as an observer at the 11th Annual Meeting of the International Film Archive in Poland. After arriving in Warsaw, Luo Guangda and Chen Shoumei attended the annual meeting on September 6. At that time, China had not yet set up a film archive. Luo Guangda spoke on the issue of film archive collection, which attracted the attention of delegates from all over the world. He hoped to exchange film archive with China.

After the meeting, Luo Guangda and Chen Shoumei visited the Polish Film Archive.

(October)

Luo Guangda and Chen Shoumei visited the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia to learn about the scale and management of the two national film archives.

(November)

When Luo Guangda and Chen Shoumei returned to China, they immediately wrote a report to the film Bureau, the Ministry of culture and the State Council on their participation in the annual meeting, and suggested the establishment of a preparatory office for the China Film Archive.

Note: 1. The International Federation of Film Archive (hereinafter referred to as "the Federation of state owned assets") was founded in 1938. The site of the conference began in Paris, France, and is now in Brussels. It is an international film culture cooperation organization. At present, more than 70 film libraries have participated in the conference. During the Second World War, thanks to the hard work of the film reference libraries of various countries and their international cooperation, more than 5000 films were saved safely from gunfire. Since its establishment, the "SASAC" has attracted the attention of UNESCO. Since 1946, the SASAC has decided to hold an annual meeting every year.

2. Before the establishment of the Preparatory Office of the China Film Archive (1954-1955), Evans of the Netherlands, an old friend of the Chinese people, sadur of France, a world film historian, and tobolis, a professor of Poland, enthusiastically suggested that China should join the Federation of National Film Archive on many occasions.

1956

(February)

With the approval of the higher authorities, the Preparatory Office of the film archive will be set up within the head office of China Film Distribution Corporation. Wang Hui was appointed director of the preparatory office.

(March)

Wang Hui's preliminary work plan for this year's preparatory office is to solve the urgent staff problems of the preparatory office. More than ten people have been transferred from China Film Corporation to the preparatory office successively, including Li Dashen, Zhang Lianrong, Hong Ning, Xu Weiwen, Liu Qian, Zhang Xiangting, Yang Xiao, LV Zhiyuan, Gan Nanping, Gao Qinshui, sun Di, Wang Shaohua, Shi Qin and Qiu Yuzhong.

(April)

Yang Shaoren, manager of China Film Corporation, signed and approved the "measures for collecting old films" and submitted it to the film Bureau for approval. On April 27, acting director Wang Linxi gave an official reply.

Through a variety of clues to understand the scattered situation of old films and text pictures in society, and publish advertisements to widely purchase films and text pictures.

(may)

To find out the information of films and negatives scattered in various film producers and film bureaus. Send people to Changying, Shangying, Shanghai Science and technology film, and the film library of the film bureau to check the preservation of the films. It is found that the old and new films and negatives have been moldy and deteriorated to varying degrees, especially the films stored in the Bureau. Therefore, I wrote a special report to the film Bureau, suggesting that a technical team should be set up in the preparatory office to create conditions for the future preservation of the film, and that the film should be rinsed and moulded with the help of the new film studio and the development and printing factory.

(September)

From September 9 to 16, the 12th annual meeting of the International Film Archive was held in Dubrovnik, the coastal city of Yugoslavia. Wang Hui, director of the Preparatory Office of China Film Archive, and Kuang Zhiliang, translator, attended the meeting. The annual meeting discussed the admission of new members, decided on the future work of the conference, and re elected the Executive Committee and the Executive Committee

Chinese PinYin : Zhong Guo Dian Ying Zi Liao Guan