From one country to another, across an ever-increasing number of regions, film restoration work is restoring access to whole swaths of our cultural heritage. Film libraries, foundations, national archives and rights holders are working to bring back films that have long been in a fragile state, inaccessible or missing from the big screen. The Festival des 3 Continents supports this movement with The Past in the Present, a programme dedicated to recently restored heritage films.
Some of these works are by renowned filmmakers, whilst others have remained on the fringes of the established narratives of film history. What they all have in common is that they are being brought back in a form that allows them to be seen once more, sometimes for the first time in several decades. From Brazil to Japan, via Iran and the Philippines, restoration is not merely an act of preservation: it brings these films back into circulation in the present day. The festival thus continues its mission to discover and share cinematic heritage: rediscovering films also means redefining the milestones of what we consider to be our history of cinema.