Profiles: Fundación Patrimonio Fílmico Colombiano | Proimágenes Colombia

The Colombian Film Heritage Foundation, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2021, is a successor to the first attempts to create an audiovisual archive in Colombia. In 1954, thanks to the sponsorship of the Cine Club de Colombia, the Catalan bookseller Luis Vicens founded the Filmoteca Colombiana, which would later become the Cinemateca Colombiana. In 1957, and after the acquisition of the first films in its collection, it became an active member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), an entity that brings together more than 150 affiliates from all regions of the world. In 1979, it was constituted as the Colombian Cinemateca Foundation. It was not until 1984 that the Compañía de Fomento Cinematográfico (Focine) convened a preservation committee to carry out a project to archive moving images. This initiative resulted in the creation of the Colombian Film Heritage Foundation in 1986. The entity’s Board of Directors is made up of representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the District’s Institute of Culture, Radio Televisión de Colombia RTVC, Cine Colombia, the Colombian Cine Club and the Rómulo Lara Foundation.
 
The Foundation’s main objective is the creation of a national audiovisual archive, for which it searches for and recovers visual and sound recordings as well as other elements that make up Colombia’s audiovisual heritage. The objective of preservation is to ensure permanent public access to audiovisual works and records, while restored versions are also shown and exhibited.
 
Among the main activities carried out by the Colombian Film Heritage Foundation are the research, rescue, inventory, technical verification, identification, classification, storage, technical supervision and selection of elements to be restored, as well as the restoration, physical duplication, obtaining of print elements, documentation and indexing, socialization, and dissemination. During 35 years of continuous work, some of the results obtained are: 

Recovery, storage, and custody of a collection of more than 100,000 elements including film reels, video cassettes, and sound recordings, and the restoration and preservation of the first Colombian film records. As a result, the following feature films belonging to the silent period of Colombian cinema are now available to the public: Bajo el cielo antioqueño (1925), Alma provinciana (1926), Garras de oro (1926), Manizales City(1925), and a group of excerpts from titles such as La tragedia del silencio (1924), Aura o las violetas(1924), Madre (1925). From the speaking and sound period: Flores del Valle (1941), Allá en el trapiche(1943). As part of the Program to Strengthen Colombian Audiovisual Heritage, the silent part of the Archivo Fílmico y Fotográfico del Valle del Cauca y Expedición al Caquetá (1936), from the Cinemateca Distrital’s Sendero de luz (1946) collection, was restored.
 
Other works include safeguarding, cataloguing, indexing, and disseminating the Acevedo’s Historical Film Archive, precursors of Colombian filmography, recognized by UNESCO in 2018 as Memory of the World for Latin America and the Caribbean; likewise, in 2001 the First Colombian Silent Film Showcase was held, which in association with other entities promoted the production of audiovisual works, publications, and exhibitions that show and substantiate the history of Colombian cinema, such as Más allá de “La tragedia del silencio: 25-minute video made in 1987; En busca de María:  (35 mm 16 min., 1985), film about María(Máximo Calvo, 1922). 
 
Among the titles published by the Foundation, we find Tiempos del Olympia: primeros años del cine en Colombia (Olympia Times: Early Years of Cinema in Colombia), two editions; the Colombian chapter of the book Cine latinoamericano 1896-1930 (Latin American Cinema 1896-1930); the Colombian chapter of the book South American Cinema 1915-1994; issue number  88 Credencial Historia: 100 años del cine en Colombia (100 years of cinema in Colombia); issue number 112 Credencial Historia: Las diez películas del siglo en Colombia (The ten films of the century in Colombia); the catalogues for the premieres of the restored versions of Bajo el cielo antioqueño, Alma provinciana, Pereira es la que invita a su gran carnaval de 1936, Primera muestra de cine mudo colombiano and Flores del Valle; Largometrajes colombianos de cine y video 1915-2004 (Colombian feature films and video 1915-2004).

In addition to this important work, the Foundation does not limit itself to the restoration of audiovisual collections. During its 35 years of work it has also produced publications of reference for researchers, producers, and fans of national cinema. Some of these audiovisual compilations are: Largometrajes colombianos en cine y vídeo (Colombian feature films and video, 2005), Historia del Cine Colombiano (History of Colombian Cinema, 2012), Carteles de largometrajes colombiano en cine 1925-2012(Colombian Feature Film Posters in movies 1925-2012, 2012), Días de noticias (News Days, 2019), the Cine Silente Colombiano (Colombian Silent Film) Collection (2009) or texts such as Cine Colombiano: De la ilusión industrial (Colombian Cinema: Industrial Illusion, 2015), and La preservación audiovisual en la era de los píxeles (Audiovisual preservation in the age of pixels, 2018), among others.
 
Alexandra Falla, current director of this institution, says: “On July 28, the Colombian Film Heritage Foundation celebrated 35 years of preserving and safeguarding Colombia’s audiovisual memory. Three and a half decades in which we have worked to allow Colombians to know, reconnect, and preserve moving images that also preserve our country’s history” (...) The dissemination of our work and of the materials preserved by the Foundation has also been a fundamental part of these more than three decades. This is what we constantly do in conversations or events in which national cinema is the main focus. Such is the case of Memoria Activa, the series of cycles that we have held at the FPFC facilities for several years and that, in recent months, due to the pandemic and in accordance with the “new normality,” we convened and presented online via Zoom, with the participation of directors, teachers, researchers, actors, and other experts who provide an approach to the different materials shown during these meetings. At this point it is worth mentioning our active participation in film festivals held throughout the country, activities that allow us to symbolically return knowledge and tradition to the territories.”