Digital film archive of Emirates history

Dhows crowd Dubai Creek next to the National Bank of Dubai in 1971. Horst Faas / AP

ABU DHABI // Thousands of hours of film showing what life was like in Abu Dhabi and other emirates from the 1950s to the 1980s will be restored and digitally archived for posterity.

The 16,000 hours of footage from Abu Dhabi Television’s sizeable archive were shot for news broadcasts, documentaries and other television programmes.

The collection includes black and white celluloid showing Abu Dhabi city as a small collection of buildings along the coast.

Film from the 1950s shows Qasr al Hosn and a bustling market, with shops made from palm fronds, and cows and camels roaming the road.

In one take, pearl divers jump from the side of their boats. In another, a woman leads a camel loaded with goods across the desert.

There is also extensive footage of the late Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the nation, taking part in traditional celebrations, touring the Emirates and meeting foreign leaders, plus film taken in other Gulf countries.

Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), which owns Abu Dhabi Television and is the publisher of The National, stressed the importance of archiving the footage.

“In the UAE, where the written history of the country is actually quite limited, preserving the documents that do exist, [whether it be] written or on film or photograph, is critical and needs to be done before the documents are lost over time or because of the elements which slowly degenerate film,” he said.

“These things degenerate over time so it is important that we get it now and capture and store it in the best conditions.”

Abdul Hadi al Sheikh, ADMC’s chief technology officer, said the archive included one-inch reels and cinema reels, and four obsolete video formats.

“The footage dates back to the 1950s and this really is a national initiative to restore the film using state-of-the-art technology,” he said.

Colour correction and noise reduction measures would also be done when the film was moved to digital format, Mr Sheikh said.

Tom Canavan of Ascent Media, the company that will preserve the historical archive, said the digitalisation process would take between 10 and 12 months and would be done once a technical infrastructure was developed by year’s end.

The initiative will also see the chronicling of modern film and, as none of the original footage is permitted to leave the country, a team from ADMC will be trained in digital archiving.