Lena also runs a photography lab called The Laboratory alongside other initiatives that are related to film/photography. Most recently, she has begun branching into motion picture, specifically 8mm, by organising a Super 8 Short Film Competition called Two.Five.

Lena reached out to S8RL because in Egypt, there are no labs at all working to develop/scan cinema film, and only a few working with photography. The Laboratory Film lab has build a solid photography base in the past few years, but now as they look to move into motion picture, they find themselves facing many challenges, and there is no one to reach out to for consultation/advice locally – or even regionally. So, why not drop by in Den Haag once she’s there.

We talked about many topics and what surprised me is that they have so much troubles in Egypt that we can’t imagine. In Europe for example you can relative easily buy raw chemicals. Even a small lab can buy film and super8 cartridges directly from Kodak and in a normal situation you receive the goods within a week. Materials like super8 leader, film splicers, super8 reels and Kodak film are not so easy to import into Egypt. Things are easy in the European Union.

Furthermore we spoke about how to develop film, how to dry these and how to clean ECN-2 colour negative films during or after processing. It was a very nice and warm conversation and I really hope that Lena and her friends find a way to work around all the issues they have. It should not be like that. Everybody should have access to film and processing. I gained respect for people for continuing and wanting to work analog despite all the difficulties. That takes perseverance.

For instance, the FFAA is a foundation that manages and guards the visual material of the whole province of Friesland. This is very special because in most provinces the film archives belong to cities, and are managed by those same cities.

The advantage of a foundation is that many decisions can be made quickly. The advantage of a city is that it can never go bankrupt and the collection will always be guarded.

The FFAA has a paid staff of 3 people while here in The Hague we only have 1 person responsible for everything. And the FFAA has a number of volunteers who, for example, describe films or digitise videotapes. Also the 8mm, super8 and 16mm films at the FFAA are digitised in-house, which in turn reduces the price. Yes, very smart people live in the northern part of the Netherlands. Hats off.

A month ago, the FFAA launched a whole new website and you can check it out here where you can enjoy a lot of images and films.

Visitors address.
Fries Film & Audio Archive
Boterhoek 1
8911 DH Leeuwarden

We talked about the different types of film emulsions, and the different camera’s like double-8, super8 and a doublesuper8. In the darkroom they heard how film processing works and they viewed some results. Now we hope that a few people from the group – they follow a very theoretical education – will eventually shoot a super8 film themselves to get some practical experience.

The following theme’s were discussed.

• What is film? And what are emulsions?
• The movie camera and different film sizes
• The exposure of film material
• The development process
• The digitization process and examples
• Answering questions

It had been a long time since so many students were in the lab at the same time (Covid-19) and it was a lot of fun to do again. It was nice to see that everyone was very motivated and eager to learn. A lot of attention was paid to the explanation and the possibility to operate a super8 camera for the first time was seized with both hands. In the darkroom, basic development principles were explained, and it was explained how you can get started with few resources and costs.

If you are a teacher at an art academy and do you also want to come with your class, then send an email or just give us a call. If you are a student and you have a group of fellow students together, we can also arrange something, just ask.