Film Festivals
Palo Alto International Film Festival To Present Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon” (1902) In Color
Northern California Premiere of Restoration
Palo Alto, CA – The Palo Alto International Film Festival (PAIFF 9/29-10/02 ) is thrilled to announce that it will present the northern California premiere of Georges Méliès’ masterpiece, “A Trip to the Moon” (1902), in its original color version on Saturday, October 1, for two special screenings at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The restoration was carried out by Lobster Films, Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema. Prior to each screening, Tom Burton (Technicolor), who supervised the restoration, will speak about the process of restoring 13,324 severely damaged color frames.
The color version of “A Trip to the Moon” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the Opening evening, on May 11, 2011, 109 years after its first release a fully restored color version is once again visible on screen, after being considered lost.
The digital restoration of Méliès’ masterpiece took place at Technicolor Creative Services in Los Angeles, California and was supervised by Tom Burton. The nitrate color elements were found in Spain in 1993, in desperate conditions and it took years to finally start a complete restoration in 2010.
“This is the most complex and ambitious restoration project we have ever taken on, all the more that this film, one of the first in the history of cinema, had vanished for over 100 years,” declared Serge Bromberg (Lobster Films), Gilles Duval (Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema) and Séverine Wemaere (Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage). A colossal amount of work was done in order to breathe life back into this color masterpiece by Georges Méliès.
“This amazing restoration of “A Trip to the Moon” epitomizes the convergence of art and technology that is the foundation of PAIFF,” said Deviyani Kamdar, Executive Director of PAIFF. “Tom Burton and his team are representative of the type of people that PAIFF celebrates – the innovators and masters behind the scenes who are changing the face of cinema on a daily basis.”
Tickets to “A Trip to the Moon”, as well as the rest of the PAIFF 2011 lineup are now available at www.paiff.net. Passes for the 2011 Palo Alto International Film Festival are also available. To be notified of any changes to PAIFF’s Program and Schedule, text PAIFF to 80474.
PAIFF’s goal is to facilitate, fuel and ignite current and future cinematic revolutions through education and entertainment. PAIFF convenes artists, media and technology professionals, and attendees in an intimate environment where they can experience great cinema, learn about cutting-edge technologies and ideas, and celebrate the artists and innovators shaping the world of moving pictures. Experience. Learn. Connect.
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