Recounting his journey of awakening memories through color over the years, Vien Hong Quang said he started this work in 2020. Quang studied information technology at Hanoi University of Science and Technology but has a particular passion for historical documents. For him, each old document not only has archival value but also contains stories worth preserving and spreading. However, many young people have not yet accessed Vietnam's historical archives.
Regretting the loss of valuable documents and wishing to bring the country's historical archives to young people, Vien Hong Quang began restoring the color and improving the image quality of black and white photographs. The more he did it, the more passionate he became. Later, Quang did not stop at restoring photos; he continued to expand into the field of historical documentaries with the desire to recreate memories of the past in a more vivid way.
While a single photograph only requires processing a single frame, documentary film consists of 24 consecutive frames per second. This means thousands of frames must be processed individually before being assembled into a complete film. This enormous workload demands patience, meticulous attention to detail, and can take months, even years, for a single project.
However, according to Vien Hong Quang, the biggest difficulty still lies in making the black and white documents look authentic. Quang doesn't have an absolutely accurate answer to compare with. Meanwhile, even a single inaccurate detail can change how viewers perceive history.
Before deciding to color each detail in the photograph, Viên Hồng Quang carefully considers and continuously compares various sources of information, from the colors of military uniforms and civilian clothing to the vehicles and settings of daily life in each historical period. "Although the final decisions are still subjective, I always try to keep the product as objective as possible," he shared.
These persistent efforts yielded their first significant impact in 2020, when Quang released a documentary film recording an interview with President Ho Chi Minh in French in 1966, on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the President's birth. The film quickly attracted widespread attention on social media, receiving millions of views and tens of thousands of shares. Many expressed their emotion at seeing President Ho Chi Minh come to life more vividly for the first time through footage that had previously only existed in black and white.
One of the most memorable milestones for Vien Hong Quang was the project to restore the color of the documentary film "The 17th Parallel - People's War". This is a famous work by Dutch director Joris Ivens, completed in 1968 after a long period of living, witnessing, and working in the war-torn land of Quang Tri .
"The 17th Parallel - People's War" is nearly 120 minutes long. Quang spent about a year completing the color version of the film. At the end of 2022, the Department of Information and Communications of Quang Tri province, in coordination with the People's Committee of Vinh Linh district, organized a screening of the restored color version of the film.
During the post-screening exchange that day, Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan Phuong, who had been part of the film crew as an interpreter for director Joris Ivens, was present. More than half a century after working amidst the bombs and bullets of Vinh Linh, the moment of seeing herself and her comrades on screen with such realistic colors moved her deeply.
Recalling this special experience, Vien Hong Quang said it was the moment he knew he needed to remain steadfast on this path. The reactions of those who had lived through that historical period helped him clearly understand the meaning of the work he was pursuing.
"I grew a lot during the making of this film, from my professional skills to my perspective on people and history. Those who came before me helped and taught me a great deal so that I could complete this work," Vien Hong Quang shared.
Quang also said that he is nurturing many new plans in the restoration and digitization of historical documents. He has just completed a re-edited version of the film "A Decent Story," adding a new English subtitle system, and plans to release an HDR version in the near future, aiming to help the work reach the public with more modern projection technologies.
Each reconstructed film clip, each colorized photograph, is not simply a restoration of images from the past. It is also a way for historical memories to continue to be present in today's life, helping the younger generation better understand the people, events, and milestones that have shaped the identity of the Vietnamese nation. When the past is retold in the language of the times, history also has a greater chance to live on in the collective memory.
Efforts to bring historical photographs and documentary films to today's youth are also a practical activity contributing to the implementation of Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science and technology development. Such initiatives and approaches need to be encouraged and spread further, especially in the context of the strong promotion of digital transformation, in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 57 mentioned above.
Source: https://cand.vn/danh-thuc-ky-uc-bang-sac-mau-post813870.html
