Valuable Film Historical Materials on Flood Control and Disaster Relief in the Yangtze River Basin Have Been Digitally Preserved
Digital restoration of Hubei historical footage brings back scenes of flood fighting on the Yangtze River and the construction of the Three Gorges 4K scanning and AI retouching have preserved nearly 33 hours of archival material, and the high-definition footage will be made freely available
The “Documenting Mountains and Rivers — Digital Exhibition of Historical Film and Image Archives” held in Wuhan, Hubei showcased a batch of restored old film footage, including precious historical scenes such as flood control and disaster relief along the Yangtze River basin, the Jingjiang flood diversion project, and the construction of the Three Gorges Project.
According to the report, this digital restoration project covered old film materials from Hubei dating from the 1920s and 1930s to 2010. Through processes such as cleaning and restoration, 4K scanning, AIassisted restoration, framebyframe finetuning, and original sound recovery, it has produced nearly 33 hours of highdefinition digital image archives that can be preserved for the long term.
Some of the footage had never been made public before. The organizers said that digital preservation helps protect vulnerable historical materials and also facilitates future access, sharing, and research. The related highdefinition restored footage has been donated to the Hubei Provincial Library and will be opened to the public free of charge in the future.