Moving Image Archive News - A clearinghouse of information on film archiving and related endeavors

By Matthew Epler

Aqaba, Jordan –

Almost 900 mysteries wait to be solved at the Royal Film Commission in Amman, Jordan. They are film cans stacked in a garage facing a busy and popular street lined with small markets, workshops, and restaurants. Each day, locals and tourists pass them by without the slightest notion that within them could be (and most likely are) clues of serious cultural significance leading from this dusty garage in Jordan all the way to the U.S.S.R. and back again.

Saved from a trash pile by local artist Ali Maher, these film canisters were found at a now defunct Russian Cultural Center in Amman. The Royal Film Commission Jordan (RFC) was gracious enough to store them temporarily, where they have sat untouched for some time. Then, in the summer of 2009, on my way back to my teaching job in Aqaba at the Red Sea Institute for Cinematic Arts, my colleague Mohannad Bakri mentioned them and asked if I cared to see them. I knew what was going to happen. I was going to enter an obsessive treasure hunt. The challenge of finding out what was hiding in those canisters was an opportunity I could not pass up.

For months thereafter, I tried to negotiate their transfer to a more secure location where they would not suffer through the notoriously hot, dry summers and cold, wet winters of Amman. Mold was growing on the ceiling, and the RFC had already slated the space to be renovated for use as a café. But without knowing if the films were treasures or trash, no one would foot the bill. …MORE >>