We started the film digitization and restoration process in 2012 with the documentary film Earth of the Blind (1992) by director Audrius Stonys. This film became the first film in Lithuanian film history to be restored.
We took the digital turn in cinema seeking to bring back the original form of the films and give them the opportunity to circulate freely in national and international cinema theaters. We have now digitzed and restored over 20 documentaries and more than 15 hours of video works.
For this initiative, we have been awarded the Silver Crane Award at the National Film Awards and The Oak Gratitude Award of the Lithuanian Cinematographers’ Association.
We were inspired to start digitizing and restoring film heritage by the World Cinema Project founded by director Martin Scorsese, dedicated to presenting forgotten or unknown cinematic works. With this initiative, we were seeking not only to help active contemporary filmmakers to adapt their cine-film works to the modern digital cinema format, but also to present the history of Lithuanian cinema to international audiences, as it is gaining more and more attention; especially as that the vast majority of films made during the Soviet era never got the opportunity to cross the borders of the USSR.
In collaboration with filmmakers, curators, restorers and archivists, we have digitized and restored films by Viktoras Starošas, Robertas Verba, Almantas Grikevičius, Edmundas Zubavičius, Henrikas Šablevičius, Diana and Kornelijus Matuzevičius, Audrius Stonys, Arūnas Matelis, Valdas Navasaitis and Algimantas Maceina.
Since 2018, we have been digitizing and restoring works captured and stored not only on cine film, but also VHS, including works by Gintaras Šeputis and the students of his Visual Studio – the first video art courses in Lithuania; the first French-Baltic video art festival Festival Franco-Balte d’art video; and works by Karla Gruodis, Aleksas Andriuškevičius, Tomas Andrijauskas and Aurelija Maknytė, among others.
The restored films have been screened at the Archive Film Festival in Bologna Il Cinema Ritrovato, the Documentary Film Festival Visions du Réel, International House in Philadelphia, Cinema STYX in Brussels, the Grenoble Cinematheque, Festival Les Boréales, the Italian National Film Museum in Turin, the Newcastle Side Cinema, the Paris Cinematheque, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, as well as in Brussels, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Prague and Riga.
Project team: Giedrė Burokaitė, Lina Černiauskaitė, Dovilė Grigaliūnaitė, Ivenija Jakštaitė, Viktoras Juzonis, Lina Kaminskaitė, Vidmantas Kazlauskas, Rimvydas Leipus, Kornelijus Matuzevičius, Audrius Naujalis, Gerda Paliušytė, Vytis Puronas, Marius Steponėnas, Audrius Stonys, Algirdas Tarvydas, Mantė Valiūnaitė, Jonas Zagorskas, Gintė Žulytė
Contacts:
Lina Kaminskaitė
linak@menoavilys.org
+370 656 23736
Gerda Paliušytė
gerda.paliusyte@menoavilys.lt
+370 604 76298
Ona Kotryna Dikavičiūtė
ona.dikaviciute@menoavilys.lt
+370 614 64042