The treatment and housing for the Bengali and Hindi film booklets is finished now. Tears have been mended, rusty staples and pressure-sensitive tape have been removed, and each one is safely housed in an enclosure. They will now go on to a happy and comfortable life in the IU Libraries high-density storage facility, the ALF. They can be requested for use via IUCAT. See the South Asian Cinema Research Guide, including the section on Archival Materials at IU to learn more.
Gwen Kirk, South Asian and Southeast Asian Studies Librarian, found this booklet for the film সঞ্চারিণী (Sancarini), most interesting.
Gwen writes:
“ … it’s a map of pilgrimage sites in the Himalayas. Looks like the path starts in Haridwar (on the Ganges, bottom left), goes up to the holy sites at Kedarnath and Badrinath, then back down and ends at Ranikhet. It’s showing bus routes and walking trails as some pilgrims would be walking this entire way, which is like 400 some miles according to Google maps. I did some more digging on the film, seems like it’s based on a famous novel and involves pilgrims on these routes. Thanks for highlighting this, how unique! I’ve never seen anything like this in film promotional materials!”
Another interesting feature of this booklet is the way several scenes are placed left to right across the page opening. A modern form of narrative art?
The knowledge of the subject specialist is so helpful in preservation! Understanding the research value of materials helps us determine the most appropriate treatment for them. And it is definitely more rewarding to know there are people out there excited to work with the materials we’ve gotten to know — in a different, yet up-close-and personal way — when we work to ensure their preservation and accessibility.
Thank you, Gwen!
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