Over 2,000 classic Polish films and TV shows to be digitised and made available online for free

Over 2,000 classic films and TV shows from the archives of Poland’s state broadcaster, TVP, are set to be digitally restored and made available online free of charge. The project will be completed over the next four years thanks to €7 million in funding from the European Union.

Documentaries, feature films, TV series and news reporting will be digitised from magnetic and photosensitive tapes and upscaled to HD quality. All materials will also feature captions for those with impaired hearing.

Among the titles included in the project are Incredibly peaceful man (Niespotykanie spokojny człowiek) from 1975 by iconic director Stanisław Bareja and 1990’s Escape from the ‘Liberty’ Cinema (Ucieczka z kina “Wolność”) by Wojciech Marczewski.

TVP will also restore The Career of Nikodem Dyzmy (Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy), a comedy television miniseries that aired in 1980, as well as Weekend Stories (Opowieści weekendowe) by renowned director Krzysztof Zanussi.

A total of 41.6 million zloty (€9.8 million) will be spent on the restoration project, with close to 80% coming from the EU’s European Funds for Digital Development programme.

“Digital restoration is a technologically advanced process that requires precision, which is why it’s carried out by a team of experienced professionals,” said Ewelina Sapińska from TVP’s Documentation and Program Collections Center.

“Each frame of a given broadcast is individually scanned, image and sound reconstructed, and color corrected. We use top-of-the-line equipment for this purpose and, when processing the materials, we pay particular attention to respecting the creator’s original vision and the integrity of the work,” she added.

TVP owns more than 1.5 million audiovisual programmes, which are a major part of Poland’s cultural heritage. To date, the broadcaster has digitised more than 2,500 archival productions and made them available online free of charge.

Main image credit: TVP (screenshot)