50000 Films Found?

[Stephen Cremin]

Take this as Chinese whispers if you like, but from somebody in the 
Korean film industry: "someone once went to Abe's house, ostensibly as 
a guest to check out the house's structure and temperature and 
humidity, and they said that it would have been impossible to keep an 
80-year-old print properly there."  Let's hope he had a 
climate-controlled cellar.

The existence of ARIRANG and other silent Korean films will hopefully 
put pressure on the National Film Center to be more open about the 
collection.  I'm sure Cannes, Venice and Pusan are all desperate to 
premiere this.  Although NFC aren't due to publish their next catalogue 
until 2012...

Stephen


On Feb 12, 2005, at 3:48 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:

> It's ironic that with the Korean boom in Japan these days, the Arirang 
> news is played up (important news though it is), even though it is 
> much more likely that the grand majority of these films are Japanese.
>
> I've heard rumors about this guy for a while, but I only hope these 
> films are in good condition. There are a number of private collectors 
> out there who are hoarding their films, even when they are made of 
> explosive nitrate stock. Let's pray that there are some great films in 
> this collection and that they will be viewable.
>
> Aaron Gerow
> KineJapan owner