AKNI Community Projects

The Akira Kurosawa News & Information community that has developed around this website has been fairly active in promoting certain ideas and goals regarding the promotion and preservation of Kurosawa’s works and legacy. This page serves as a brief introduction to these projects and the state that they are currently in.

There are currently three projects that have been initiated: one to save Dersu Uzala, another that deals with subtitles, and finally one to explore the possibilities of distributing Kurosawa’s out-of-copyright films.

If you have a project in mind in which you think we should consider directing our collective skills, connections and abilities, please make yourself heard at the community projects section of the Akira Kurosawa Discussion Forums.

Project Dersu

It has come to our attention that the original negatives of Kurosawa’s 1975 film Dersu Uzala, stored at Gosfilmofond in Moscow, are in a very poor condition.

Project Dersu’s primary goals are to collect reliable information about the actual condition in which the material is, and if need be, contact people and organizations who might be able to save this film classic from physical decay.

We are currently still taking the initiative steps in exploring our options and capabilities regarding this project. If you would be interested in taking part, declare your interest at the Saving Dersu Uzala topic over at the forums.

The Subtitling Project

Many of Akira Kurosawa’s early films are practically unavailable with proper English subtitles. The Subtitling Project aims to explore the possibilities we have to create a public domain database of English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa’s films, with a focus on the movies that currently lack readable subtitles.

The initial discussion for this project has been carried in a comment thread to this post.

The Public Domain Movies Project

Movies that were made in Japan before 1953 are in public domain according to the Japanese legal system. We are therefore exploring the possibilities of making these films available online, keeping in mind international copyrights and other related issues.