Celluloid Man

More than 1,500 films were made in India during the silent era, of which only nine remain. And these thanks to the pioneering efforts of film preservationist P. K. Nair, who founded the National Film Archive of India in 1964. With an uncanny knack for hunting down films in need of preservation, Nair collected more than 12,000 prints—of both Indian and world cinema—by the time he retired in 1991. Interspersed with rare footage from the early silents he helped save and interviews with generations of filmmakers influenced by his visionary work, Dungarpur’s illuminating documentary captures Nair’s infectious passion for the flickering glow of celluloid.