Baghdad – INA

The National Center for Archives and Iraqi Memory announced on Wednesday the launch of a national project to archive and restore film and television productions. The center confirmed its success in restoring the first Iraqi film using 4K technology. It also revealed the opening of the first national laboratory specializing in film restoration and emphasized Iraq's vast documentary heritage and ongoing efforts to recover undocumented historical documents.

The center's director, Hassan Radhi Al-Manea, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) on the sidelines of a tour of the archives' storage facilities: "The center organizes intensive training courses to introduce the principles of preservation, restoration, and conservation, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of Iraqi documents and methods for preserving and recovering them."

Al-Mana'a added that "Iraq is among the leading countries in the region possessing a rich documentary heritage in visual, audio, and written forms," ​​noting at the same time that "many of these documents remain scattered in various locations or in the possession of individuals unaware of their historical value, which necessitates exceptional efforts to document and preserve them as an irreplaceable national heritage."

For his part, Ahmed Diwan, Director of the Iraqi Memory Audio-Visual Archive, confirmed to the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "the center began implementing a comprehensive project three years ago to rehabilitate the Iraqi film and television archive," explaining that "the current building houses rare films and visual documents dating back to the early days of the Iraqi state."

Diwan added that "technical teams successfully restored the film 'Saeed Effendi,' the first Iraqi film produced between 1955 and 1956, and processed it using 4K technology. It was then screened at several film festivals." He also noted "the opening of the first Iraqi national laboratory specializing in film restoration using the latest technologies."

He explained that "work is ongoing to restore the remaining films and the legacy of Iraqi television, in conjunction with the establishment of comprehensive national databases containing films produced from the 1940s to the present day, making them available to researchers and those interested, and ensuring their preservation for future generations."