Media Releases

World’s first ‘feature’ film to be digitally restored by National Film and Sound Archive

Date: 7 February 2006


The National Film and Sound Archive has announced that it will digitally restore the Australian film classic The Story of the Kelly Gang - the earliest feature film ever made - to mark the centenary of its world premiere on 26 December 1906. . State-of-the-art technologies for moving image restoration will be applied to bring the surviving footage of the film to a condition as close as possible to the original. The digital version will then be presented by the NFSA later this year, in conjunction with the film’s centenary celebrations.

'The Story of the Kelly Gang is more than an icon of Australian cinema and history. It is also the first evidence of the growth of feature-length film as a form of mass entertainment,' said Paolo Cherchi Usai, Director of the NFSA. 'Thanks to the major advances in digital preservation achieved in the past few years, audiences will be able to experience this treasure in a way that would have been unimaginable only a decade ago.'

The original running time of The Story of the Kelly Gang was almost one hour, making it by far the longest motion picture of its time. Over the years, the National Film and Sound Archive retrieved and saved from destruction a series of fragments from different sections of the work, corresponding to approximately 10 minutes of projection. Each frame of the extant nitrate print will be digitally scanned at a high resolution to create a new 35mm preservation negative of better quality than the existing material.

'Digital is not the answer for the long-term conservation of the traditional cinematic experience,' said Cherchi Usai. 'However, it is a powerful tool for public access, and for restoring damaged parts of a film in a way that would not be possible with analog techniques. A responsible use of digital technology can contribute to the protection and dissemination of our audiovisual heritage, and the National Film and Sound Archive wants to be at the forefront of this important process.'

In addition to the actual restoration of the surviving fragments, NFSA curators will create an additional ‘study’ version of the film, incorporating production stills and narrative intertitles from original theatre programs. 'This version will not replace the newly restored footage,' said Meg Labrum, Chief Curator at the NFSA. 'Instead, it will help understanding the plot of the film in its entirety, explaining which parts have been found and which ones are still missing.' This study version will be made available on DVD together with the restoration of the original footage.

For further information, contact:

David Hogan
Telephone: unavailable
Mobile: unavailable
Email: david.hogan@afc.gov.au

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