In the midst of mostly wretched news, worldwide, nationally, and everywhere else, this story has inspired me so much. The anti-culture anti-life anti-future Taliban, who would prefer that we all live in the 12th century, went on a rampage after they took power in the mid-1990s, destroying reels and reels of film that they took out of the state-run television station in Kabul. A man named Habibullah Ali felt the storm coming and – at great risk to himself – saved 7,000 reels of film, hiding them in different places, waiting for the storm to pass. It’s been 20 years, and now a hearty team of restoration artists and computer programmers have unearthed all of those reels, and have begun a project of restoration (many of the reels are in bad shape) and then digitization, so that these archives will be available to be seen.
You can read the whole wonderful story here. I was very struck by the comment of one of the men watching documentary footage of Afghanistan in happier freer times. He has only known his country at war.
I would love to support their efforts. And I want to see these films.
Wow, what an incredible story. I’m so glad people saved these films, even risking certain death by doing so.
Me too!
A friend in the Air Force has helped train some Afghani fighter pilots. He has nothing but respect for those guys. I hope this emboldens the decent folks there to reclaim their country.
Thanks for sharing this.
It speaks volumes that they felt it was safe enough to unearth those reels and get to work. Continuity has been so totally broken in Afghanistan – the entire 20th century is a whirlwind of invasion – internal, external – and fighting back.
Hopefully these films will help restore some continuity. I hope there’s a festival eventually. I imagine many arthouses are already on the case!