As a comparatively young discipline, film preservation has looked upon other practices as a template for its philosophical foundations and ethical guidelines: generally speaking, fine arts restoration and textual criticism have been taken as the two main polarities between which cinema preservation shifts. While film preservation’s debt to these disciplines is most apparent, other methodologies and practices should be considered as allies for addressing the challenges that the discipline is facing in the digital age.

This conference aims at going back to the roots of film preservation’s affinities and differences with other fields to open up different possibilities for collaboration and explore what is there to be learned from their best practices, including how the comparison between film preservation and other kinds of restoration or archival practices can affect our view of the medium’s nature itself. Reflecting on these issues is more urgent than ever, given the revolution operated by the introduction of digital technology in film restoration and preservation practices.

While different disciplines have reflected upon the consequences of the introduction of digital technology in their respective fields, they have mostly done so in isolation from one another. Even within cinema studies, discourses surrounding digital technology take different shapes depending on whether they are carried out in academia, film archives, or restoration laboratories. And yet, bringing all these discourses together is essential for having a more balanced view on digital tools for preservation, which are alternatively saluted as a lifesaver or treated as a curse.

We therefore invite scholars and practitioners in film preservation, arts restoration, and other related disciplines to come together and share each field’s best practices and hardest challenges, especially in light of the advent of digital technology, as well as reflections on the effects that preservation issues have on each field’s theory and historiography.