The Nigerian Film Corporation in partnership with the German government through the Goethe Institute is set to train second batch of film archivists from the Corporation and film academics from the University of Jos. The trainees will undergo intensive theoretical and practical training in film archiving, restoration, digitization and editing using some of the best training equipment in film archiving.
The collaboration is part of the four-year exchange programme with the Germans to help restore and digitize many of the decaying celluloid films in Nigeria held in the vaults of the National Film, Video and Sound Archive of the NFC.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Film Corporation, Dr Chidia Maduekwe, while addressing a press conference at the Headquarters of the Corporation in Jos told journalists that the training is also a crucial component in the newly inaugurated Master Degree Programme in FILM CULTURE AND ARCHIVAL STUDIES at the National Film Institute, the training arm of the NFC, also situated in Jos.
Dr Maduekwe thanked the Federal Government for the support the NFC is receiving in carrying out her mandate as the apex film regulatory agency in Nigeria. He said the Corporation was poised to implement to the latter the directives of the Honorable Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in repositioning the industry for efficiency and further growth.
The NFC has identified training, manpower development, film archiving and funding as critical to the progress of the motion picture industry in Nigeria and has entered into various national and international partnerships with some agencies to achieve her strategic goals in these and more areas of film development, the MD pointed out.
The premier film school in Nigeria, the National Film Institute, Jos is being primed to become the first National Film University in Nigeria following its relocation to the Permanent Site and provision of facilities that will engender training at all levels of the Institutes training.
With support from the German Government and other international bodies, the nation’s repository of motion picture and sound, the National Film, Video and Sound Archive (NFVSA) is also being positioned to strengthen and achieve its aim of film collection, archiving, restoration and digitization of motion picture materials.