ABSTRACT
A film that has survived for a hundred years has experienced a long chain of good luck. Even if a film has survived, however, it is usually incomplete for it is often the case that the praxis of film preservation has meant that the original source material has been duplicated onto new black-and-white film stock and the colour information has been lost (survival of colour). Another and problem with film preservation is that careless digitisation of old films causes a loss of picture information that could have been easily rescued (survival of grain). This chapter discusses two films shot in Istanbul in the 1920s as an example to reconsider what the role of film archives in the digital era is and should be.
