Reels of a lost Manipur to undergo digital revival in Italy
The S.N. Chand Cine Archive & Museum in Manipur is collaborating with an Italian foundation to digitize rare 8mm film reels from the 1930s to 1960s. This project aims to preserve the state's early cinematic and cultural history.
Why it matters
It addresses the critical need for institutional preservation of regional film heritage that is currently at risk of decay.
In the age of fast storytelling with short vertical videos on smartphones, Manipur is rewinding to an era of elaborate reel-making less than a century ago.
A collection of 15 rare and fragile 8mm celluloid reels, believed to contain rare footage shot mostly between the mid-1930s and early 1960s, is set to undergo professional inspection, cataloguing, and preservation digitisation in Italy.
The Imphal-based S.N. Chand Cine Archive & Museum (SNCCAM) is collaborating with the Home Movies Foundation-National Family Film Archive in Bologna to digitise these reels for posterity.
These reels, each up to 10 minutes long, are believed to contain rare footage shot by Maharaj Kumar Priyabrata Singh and Kongbrailatpam Ibohal Sharma, long before Manipuri cinema found its footing. They were among 25 reels X-Cine donated to the SNCCAM.
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