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SEOUL — The Korean Film Archive (KOFA) has signed an “agreement of cooperation” with the newly opened Shanghai Film Museum, the South Korea state-backed body announced.
The pact, the first of its kind to be pursued for KOFA since its inception in 1974, means the two organizations will collaborate for film screenings, exhibitions, and restoration projects.
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“I hope the agreement will facilitate cultural exchange between the two countries and also help push forth international projects,” said Lee Byung-hoon, director of KOFA. He added that the pact will help the archive recover and restore local classics dispersed around the world. Last year for example KOFA succeeded in locating the 1958 film Love With an Alien, the first Korea-Hong Kong co-production, at the Hong Kong Film Archive.
“Hallyu [the Korean term for the country’s recent pop culture wave around the world] and other elements of Korean culture have been increasingly introduced in China, and this agreement is expected to boost cultural exchange,” said the Shanghai museum’s deputy director Fan Yi Rong.
The Chinese museum, which just opened Sunday as part of the Shanghai International Film Festival, is operated by the state-run Shanghai Film Group Corporation. The four-story building comprises four exhibition spaces and five cinemas. It stores some 30,000 films and documents that were owned by film studios based in Shanghai, as well as 20,000 costumes and props.
The inauguration ceremony for the museum included the screening of Alfred Hitcock’s Blackmail, the first of nine silent films by the auteur being shown at the festival. In attendance were industry insiders including Davide Pozzi of Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna.
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