When film cans arrive at the archive it is often not clear which film they contain. The archivist's job is to open the rusty cans and to watch and identify these film reels. Since the film business is based on printing many copies and sending them around the world, potentially any film can turn up anywhere. Despite this practice of copying and duplicating, the majority of the films made during the period of silent cinema, roughly from 1895 to the 1930s, is considered lost today. However, in every film archive the are also numerous film reels still waiting to be properly identified. In this workshop we will demonstrate and explain our methods of identification, which are sometimes similar to detective work. We will also show some unidentified fragments, hoping that the audience can help us with their knowledge, providing useful tips.

Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi  Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi is the Curator of Silent film at EYE Filmmuseum. Since 1999, she has worked on the discovery, restoration and presentation of many presumed lost films. These include Beyond the Rocks (starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, 1922),The Floor Below (starring Mabel Normand, 1918), Az utolsó hajnal (Michale Curtiz, 1917), and many more. She is directly involved with the archival festivals Il Cinema Ritrovato, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto and Istanbul Silent Cinema Days. She is also one of the curators who initiated ‘Views of the Ottoman Empire’, a travelling archival presentation project, that has been screening in various countries since the summer of 2014.