Imphal: Johnson Rajkumar, a film archivist from Manipur, has been honoured and awarded ‘Champions of Film Heritage Award’ by the Film Heritage Foundation during the opening ceremony of the ongoing Film Preservation and Restoration workshop in Mumbai.
“For his selfless commitment and courage in taking the road less travelled with limited support and resources and taking on the challenge of sparking a movement for film preservation and laying the foundation to building a film archive and training archivists in his home state of Manipur,” reads the citation.
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The professionally trained film archivist, Johnson has been instrumental in setting up the film archive of Manipur and has been voluntarily working in SN Chand Cine Archive and Museum. He is currently participating in the ongoing Film Preservation and Restoration workshop as a Tata Trusts Scholar.
Johnson received the award from David Walsh, the FIAF Training and Outreach Coordinator and Boman Irani, acclaimed Indian actor.
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In the workshop, Johnson along with Film Heritage Foundation and experts from L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna are working to save the recently found reels of Mainu Pemcha (1948), the first feature film attempted of Manipur.
The workshop which commenced on December 4 till the 10th has been jointly organised by the Film Heritage Foundation in partnership with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation (TFF) and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), in association with the World Cinema Project.
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