3. About

Papua New Guinea

NATIONAL FILM INSTITUTE

Director on NFI 2014

ALL ABOUT THE PNG NATIONAL FILM INSTITUTE

The National Film Institute (NFI), is a semi-autonomous institution, funded by the state and administered by the National Cultural Commission of Papua New Guinea. It was established by an Act of Parliament in 1994, when it effectively replaced the former Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa (SBWP).

We are currently renting space in the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Studios, located in the Elizabeth Street, Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province.

HISTORY

The present day National Film Institute has evolved through a successful amalgamation of the former Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa (created in 1983) with the Film Department of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (created in 1976).

The original objective of the Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa was to work in collaboration with the Goroka-based Raun Raun Theatre to produce stage plays, films and video tapes for Papua New Guinea audiences. And so doing, involve Papua New Guinea video makers and actors in developing a home-based theatre and film industry.

Later on, the unit expanded it’s role and separated from the Raun Raun Theatre to become the Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa (School for Filmmaking) in it’s own right. There followed an intense period of film training and production supported by the French Government which culminated in the widely acclaimed drama feature production ‘Tinpis Run’.

The Port Moresby-based Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies meanwhile was tasked with documenting on film aspects of traditional culture in a society experiencing rapid social changes. Over the years, IPNGS succeeded in producing a variety of progammes to a high international standard, including winning several overseas awards.

These two collections of moving images provided the initial resource for the establishment of a National Ethnographic Film Archive under the supervision of Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies' Film Unit. Most of which were moved to the NFI’s Film, Television and Sound Archives.

Following a fire in 1998 which destroyed the Goroka Studio Complex, the National Film Institute is currently operating out of temporary rented offices in the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Studios in Goroka CBD, Eastern Highlands Province.

TODAY

Fifteen years have now passed since the fire disaster, but the legacy of it resonates to this day; for not only did the NFI lose thousands of Kinas worth of video production equipment, sadly for the Nation, most of the unique and irreplaceable film footage produced by the ‘First Generation’ of Melanesian filmmakers at the former Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa was also reduced to ashes. However like the legendary ‘Phoenix’ a bird which in classical Western mythology rose from the ashes, so too has NFI.

A project is now underway to construct a purpose built studio. The new building, when completed will feature environmentally controlled secure storage facilities and a permanent home for the Film, Television and Sound Archives of Papua New Guinea. This positive trend would not have become possible without direct National Government support in the form of PIP funding for the NFI in 2011.

Needless to say the NFI is delighted with the prospects of this development after so many years of neglect.

The investment in this facility when fully developed, will enable the NFI to continue to feed ‘programme content’ to the KUNDU 2 television channel, and when fully established, offer a professional long term digital multi-media archiving/storage solution to the KUNDU 2 television service, to government media units, Education and Tertiary Institutions, NGOs, and the private sector as required.

NCC CEO on NFI 2014

NFI Pictures from Day 1

Importance of film in PNG

Importance of Archiving