Images from the panel discussion on the occasion of the launch of the Encyclopaedia of Cinema Techniques and Technologies – Bologna, 2 July 2022

Here you will find several photographs from the panel discussion organised around the launch of the Encyclopaedia of Cinema Techniques and Technologies in Bologna on 2 July 2022 during the Il Cinema ritrovato film festival.

This event, organised in collaboration with DAMSLab, the FIAF Restoration Summer School 2022 and the Cinema Ritrovato festival, saw a dozen researchers introduce the twenty-seven thematic parcours of the Encyclopaedia, the preparation of which involved more than seventy researchers in several countries. These parcours take up topics as varied as the evolution of moving picture cameras, the transformation of film industry professions and amateur practices, discourses around technology, etc. With its scholarly articles and numerous and often hitherto unseen written and visual documents, the aim of the Encyclopaedia is to preserve cinema’s memory. The materials structuring these documents (patents, filmed demonstrations and interviews, 3D digitizing of film equipment, etc.) are indexed in a standardized manner in an open access database. Finally, the ambition of the Encyclopaedia is to become an indispensable means of documentation, study and discovery for people who are passionate about cinema techniques and technology, whether they are specialists or not.

After introductory remarks by Frédéric Maire, president of FIAF; by André Gaudreault, cinema professor at the Université de Montréal; and by Gilles Mouëllic, cinema professor at Université Rennes 2, two of the three co-founders of the international research partnership on cinema techniques and technologies (TECHNÈS), introduced the research matters central to the partnership. They were followed by Christophe Dupin, senior administrator of FIAF, who underscored the numerous ties established between FIAF and TECHNÈS over the course of the partnership (2015-2022).

The panel discussion then took place with a general introduction to the Encyclopaedia by André Habib (Université de Montréal), to the editorial process (Claudia Polledri) and to linking the public interface with the database by Rémy Besson (Université de Montréal). The final two panels, moderated by Jean-Baptiste Massuet (Université Rennes 2), were devoted to the presentation of the role of the content creator by Chloé Hofmann (Université de Lausanne) and Elisa Carfantan (Université Rennes 2) and to the illustration of two thematic parcours by Louis Pelletier (Université de Montréal), the person in charge of the parcours “The 35mm Studio Camera” and by Vanessa Nicolazic (Université Rennes 2), who with Gilles Mouëllic was in charge of the parcours “Technical Innovation from Celluloid to Digital: The Case of the Aaton Company.”

André Gaudreault, founder of the international research partnership TECHNÈS and director of the Canadian section of the international research partnership TECHNÈS; Christophe Dupin, senior administrator of FIAF and member of TECHNÈS’ scholarly committee; and Gilles Mouëllic, director of the French section of the international research partnership TECHNÈS.

The audience attending the panel discussion in the DAMSLab Auditorium.

Claudia Polledri, André Habib and Rémy Besson during the panel discussion.

Jean-Baptiste Massuet, Elisa Carfantan, Chloé Hofmann and Louis Pelletier during the panel discussion.

Jean-Baptiste Massuet, Vanessa Nicolazic, Louis Pelletier during the panel discussion.

André Gaudreault, Jean-Baptiste Massuert, Vanessa Nicolazic, Louis Pelletier during the panel discussion.

The partnership team.