Hong Kong- Cathay Organization, the Singapore movies-to-real-estate group, has donated 90 of its classic, Malay-language movies to the Asian Film Archive.
Titles, which include the surviving elements of the "Pontianak" series, were produced by the Cathay-Keris studios between 1953 and 1973. Works by notable filmmakers M. Amin, Hussein Hanif and L. Krishnan are included.
The Singapore-based archive will provide climate-controlled storage of the 16mm and 35mm prints and catalog, archive and restore the movies.
"We hope that through this initiative there will be renewed interest in such classic films," said Suhaimi Rafdi, prexy of Cathay Organization Holdings. "And perhaps even interest to remake some of these titles and adapt them to present times."
In 2004 Cathay donated 213 classic Chinese-language pics and 12,000 objects ranging from stills and posters to handbills to the Hong Kong Film Archive.
Source: www.varietyasiaonline.com (7 September 2007)
