44th National Táncház Festival & Fair • 4–6 April 2025
Issue:
Starting page: 12
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Adding sound to silent films documenting Hungarian folk dance: The film archives of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology contain an extensive collection on traditional dances of the Hungarian language regions. This article discusses the process of synchronizing existing silent films of dance – with the sound recordings of the music that were documented simultanously. Most of the silent films were made on 16 and 8 mm film. A professional film scanner which allows digitalization frame by frame and software to restore the the images are used for the process. This article summarizes process, problems and background behind the work being done for the Dance Research Department of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology. List of the archive films already synchronized with the music is included – many are available online at the link provided in the article in Hungarian, and on YouTube. The work is being done by Galát Péter, Antal Áron and Vavrinecz András in cooperation with colleagues of Dance Research Department of the Institute. The project receives support from the Csoóri Sándor Program and Martin György Folk Dance Association. Report by Galát Péter.