Rewinding the story of the cinema
Gordon de Silva
A 9.5 mm film by Pathe Baby, a 35 mm projector, less than one-minute French movies by Lumiere Brothers dating back to 1895, the last manually-operated editing table used by veteran film director G.D.L. Perera, the largest film poster of Sinhala cinema and the spectacles of Gamini Fonseka as Nadaraja in Sarungale will be among the highlights at Before it fades out. Promising to be a rejuvenating experience for cinema lovers, students and researchers, the one-stop exhibition of cinematography, still photographs and other cinema memorabilia by Gordon de Silva will unfold at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute from September 7-9.
“Each item has a story to tell,” says Gordon, a Senior Letter Graphic Animation Artist at Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation by profession and the country’s first 3D animator. The three-day exhibition is in collaboration with the Colombo International Student Film Festival.
A movie buff and collector of photographic, cinematic and printing accoutrements to which his private museum Cinemaya in Athurugiriya- has become a home, Gordon will unveil the evolution of both the world and Lankan cinema from the nitrate, celluloid to the present digital era. From still photography to the present digital format where only the insertion of a chip will do the rest, as he says, the exhibition will enable a visitor to experience equipment of bygone eras, costumes, posters and even make-up. “It’s all about a journey with its ups and downs,” says Gordon.
The museum Cinemaya which he opened in 2009 inspired by the Folk Art Museum in Koggala is home to nearly 400 collectibles which are sourced by his friends and colleagues- some completely free and others on payment. The museum is a non-commercial venture. “My objective is to educate the film lover,” says Gordon who has developed a software which enables a person to trace the origin of a film, the creative talent behind it and even 
lyrics. His museum which Gordon hopes to expand to a more spacious facility, hopefully, as a collaboration, is open to anyone to lose oneself in the ‘world of celluloid’. His extensive collection of local movies, most which are landmarks of Lankan cinema, will be donated to the Digital Film Archive facility of the National Archives at the end of his exhibition.
Gordon owes his passion for cinema to his father who used to take his young son to the movies. “Although my father’s line of work was printing, he was a fan of photography and cinema and I grew up not only learning about the plot of a movie alone, but the technical aspect of movie-making as well,” he recollects. Gordon joined Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation as a Letter-Graphic and Animation Artiste in 1983. His formative years were spent at the time Sri Lanka Television Training Institute (SLTTI) was being launched, which further honed his skills, enhanced by foreign training.
Before it fades out will be open to the public on September 7 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on 8th and 9th from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission free.