The project The Association Jocelyne Saab was born of the desire to restore Jocelyne Saab’s images in Lebanon. Conceived for administrative reasons as a French counterpart to the Cultural Resistance association set up by Jocelyne Saab in 2014, AJS was born in 2019 out of the urgent need to bring these images back to life in Lebanon, as the country’s economic, social and political situation once again entered a serious crisis.
To enable this re-emergence of the images shot by Saab during the civil war, a restoration of the films was necessary. Over and above the unavailability of a large part of the filmography, which necessitated digitization, the aim was also to restore a memory by giving it a new lease of life, and offering the public the opportunity to make a cinematographic and historical discovery.
To carry out most of the restoration work in Lebanon, it was necessary to sensitize technicians to the challenges of film preservation. The recognized expertise of post-production companies in Lebanon led to fruitful collaborations, and a dozen technicians were trained through a series of workshops to successfully restore Jocelyne Saab’s first 15 documentaries.
Becoming trainers themselves, they accompany other technicians curious to learn more about film preservation issues during workshops organized by AJS in various Arab countries (Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan). These workshops are also an opportunity to restore films, enabling them to be put back into circulation without difficulty.
Two types of training are offered:
→ Digitization training (residency at Polygone étoilé, France)
→ Digital restoration training (to be built in the country concerned)
For further information: trainings_and_residencies@jocelynesaab.org
Project coordinator: Mathilde Rouxel (programmer, film historian, teaches restoration and preservation and digitization planning at Lille 3 University, France)
Intervenants : Nadim Kamel, Manal Zakharia, Karl Salame, Jean-Philippe Bessas, Monzer El Hachem, Moncef Taleb, Chrystel Elias, Chantal Partamian, Adrien Von Nagel
Digitization training
This course is aimed at film technicians interested in preserving film archives, or artists from Arab countries wishing to work with an archive collection to which they have free access.
The training takes place over 3 days, on an MWA scanner capable of handling 8mm, Super8 and 16mm.
The first day is devoted to a general presentation of what exists, and will provide an overview of the practical and ethical issues involved in restoring heritage films. The following days will feature 16mm and 35mm manipulation, and an introduction to digitization.
Location: Polygone étoilé, Marseille
Formats: 8mm; Super8; 16mm; optical sound
Speaker: Adrien Von Nagel
Training schedule :
– Processing and cleaning of old and new silver film.
– Full training in the digitization of 16mm, Super 8mm and 8mm film on the Flashscan Nova MWA scanner.
– Use of Flashsuite 2 digitizing software.
– Mastering, conversions and color processing on DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Digital Film Restoration Trainings
The course, given by professionals working in the film and sound archives and specializing in restoration, will cover the three main professional areas of digital film restoration: archival film color grading, digital image restoration and digital sound restoration. Different types of film material will be discussed and worked on: reversal positive, negative, positive, 16mm and 35mm – and in terms of sound, optical and magnetic.
This course is aimed at industry professionals and students in film. Candidates must already have professional knowledge, or be in the process of acquiring such knowledge, of at least one of the classic post-production software packages (editing, color grading, VFX, etc.).
Training schedule :
The first day will be devoted to a general presentation of existing techniques, and will provide an overview of the practical and ethical issues involved in restoring heritage films. The following days will be devoted to practical exercises on software according to the specialty chosen by each participant: color calibration OR image restoration OR sound restoration.
These exercises will be evaluated at the end of the course, enabling participants to be certified in the specialty of their choice, issued by the Jocelyne Saab Association within the Archive Circulation Initiative.
1) Ethics and Practice of Film Restoration
* general course on film preservation and restoration ethics
* presentation of different types of format
* 16 and 35mm film handling exercises
2) Digital Film Restoration Practicing
* general presentation of the 3 different softwares : DaVinci Resolve (color calibration), Diamant HS-ART, (image restoration), iZotope RX, 11 and ProTools (sound restoration).
* practical exercises (specialized in working groups according to the software chosen by each participant) The Association Jocelyne Saab was born of the desire to restore Jocelyne Saab’s images in Lebanon. Conceived for administrative reasons as a French counterpart to the Cultural Resistance association set up by Jocelyne Saab in 2014, AJS was born in 2019 out of the urgent need to bring these images back to life in Lebanon, as the country’s economic, social and political situation once again entered a serious crisis.
To enable this re-emergence of the images shot by Saab during the civil war, a restoration of the films was necessary. Over and above the unavailability of a large part of the filmography, which necessitated digitization, the aim was also to restore a memory by giving it a new lease of life, and offering the public the opportunity to make a cinematographic and historical discovery.
To carry out most of the restoration work in Lebanon, it was necessary to sensitize technicians to the challenges of film preservation. The recognized expertise of post-production companies in Lebanon led to fruitful collaborations, and a dozen technicians were trained through a series of workshops to successfully restore Jocelyne Saab’s first 15 documentaries.
Becoming trainers themselves, they accompany other technicians curious to learn more about film preservation issues during workshops organized by AJS in various Arab countries (Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan). These workshops are also an opportunity to restore films, enabling them to be put back into circulation without difficulty.
Two types of training are offered:
→ Digitization training (residency at Polygone étoilé, France)
→ Digital restoration training (to be built in the country concerned)
For further information: trainings_and_residencies@jocelynesaab.org
Project coordinator: Mathilde Rouxel (programmer, film historian, teaches restoration and preservation and digitization planning at Lille 3 University, France)
Intervenants : Nadim Kamel, Manal Zakharia, Karl Salame, Jean-Philippe Bessas, Monzer El Hachem, Moncef Taleb, Chrystel Elias, Chantal Partamian, Adrien Von Nagel
Digitization training
This course is aimed at film technicians interested in preserving film archives, or artists from Arab countries wishing to work with an archive collection to which they have free access.
The training takes place over 3 days, on an MWA scanner capable of handling 8mm, Super8 and 16mm.
The first day is devoted to a general presentation of what exists, and will provide an overview of the practical and ethical issues involved in restoring heritage films. The following days will feature 16mm and 35mm manipulation, and an introduction to digitization.
Location: Polygone étoilé, Marseille
Formats: 8mm; Super8; 16mm; optical sound
Speaker: Adrien Von Nagel
Training schedule :
– Processing and cleaning of old and new silver film.
– Full training in the digitization of 16mm, Super 8mm and 8mm film on the Flashscan Nova MWA scanner.
– Use of Flashsuite 2 digitizing software.
– Mastering, conversions and color processing on DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Digital Film Restoration Trainings
The course, given by professionals working in the film and sound archives and specializing in restoration, will cover the three main professional areas of digital film restoration: archival film color grading, digital image restoration and digital sound restoration. Different types of film material will be discussed and worked on: reversal positive, negative, positive, 16mm and 35mm – and in terms of sound, optical and magnetic.
This course is aimed at industry professionals and students in film. Candidates must already have professional knowledge, or be in the process of acquiring such knowledge, of at least one of the classic post-production software packages (editing, color grading, VFX, etc.).
Training schedule :
The first day will be devoted to a general presentation of existing techniques, and will provide an overview of the practical and ethical issues involved in restoring heritage films. The following days will be devoted to practical exercises on software according to the specialty chosen by each participant: color calibration OR image restoration OR sound restoration.
These exercises will be evaluated at the end of the course, enabling participants to be certified in the specialty of their choice, issued by the Jocelyne Saab Association within the Archive Circulation Initiative.
1) Ethics and Practice of Film Restoration
* general course on film preservation and restoration ethics
* presentation of different types of format
* 16 and 35mm film handling exercises
2) Digital Film Restoration Practicing
* general presentation of the 3 different softwares : DaVinci Resolve (color calibration), Diamant HS-ART, (image restoration), iZotope RX, 11 and ProTools (sound restoration).
* practical exercises (specialized in working groups according to the software chosen by each participant)
