Filmoteca film archive and ESCAC audiovisual school digitalize Catalan movies

The Filmoteca film archive and ESCAC audiovisual school have embarked on a new initiative to help give Catalonia's movie industry greater visibility: digitalizing movies shot on film.

This project will see films from 1940 to 2014 adapted to modern formats in order to screen them in private and commercial venues.

"This year we have been working on eight feature films and eight short films, and because of this we have equipped ourselves with a color scanner," culture minister Natàlia Garriga explained during her visit on Thursday to the site in Terrassa, near Barcelona, where this work is being carried out.

These include Un vaso de whisky' (Julio Coll, 1958), 'Los felices 60' (Jaime Camino, 1963) or 'La ciutat cremada (Antoni Ribas, 1975).

"The films have been well preserved, but now we need to give them more visibility," Filmoteca director Esteve Rimbau said.

Indeed, thanks to their efforts a 60-year-old take on Cinderella, 'Érase una vez' (José Escobar, 1959), was screened at the Filmoteca on Thursday night.