A nearly forgotten piece of cinematic history has been brought back to life, thanks to the research of Professor Eric Faden, English — film/media studies, and a team of Bucknell students. Their work has not only revived a rare set of Japanese short films from the 1930s, but it has also taken them across the globe to unlock even more lost media.

Faden found the films by fluke in 2017 during a teaching fellowship in Kyoto. While researching another project at the Toy Film Museum, he discovered a set of reels stored away in old boxes. They immediately caught his attention because rather than being printed on traditional celluloid, they were made of paper, a medium rarely used in filmmaking.

"The only other films made on paper were copies of early American ones for copyright deposit," says Faden. "The Japanese paper films are very different in that they were meant to be projected from the get-go."

The discovery offered both an exciting find and a mystery: Because of the films' delicate physical nature, museums were hesitant to project them in case they became damaged or destroyed.

"In many cases, the museums don't even know what the films are," Faden says, "because it's very hard to make sense of a movie when you just look at the individual frames. We're very fortunate that many museums and collectors had the foresight to keep the films even though they can't be watched."

Determined to preserve the films digitally, Faden began meticulously photographing each frame with the intention of stitching them together as a video. The task proved to be far from simple. Although each film only lasts between two and 12 minutes, it could take Faden up to four and a half hours to photograph one. Even then, the result didn't achieve the desired effect of watching a continuous movie.

However, this close examination of the films helped Faden appreciate their interesting qualities. The paper films were made by three companies — Refcy, Katei Toki and Tsukiboshi — for home movie viewing. They had a handmade quality and were glued together every three feet.

Unlike traditional celluloid films, which have consistent perforations on the sides of the reel that allow the projector to "grab" and "pull" the frames in sequence, the paper films used a different projector system, requiring the perforations to be in the middle of the reel, between frames.

Jackson Rubiano '27 and Harry Winter '26 (L to R) developed software to recognize frames and stabilize images. Photo by Emily Paine, marketing & communications

Recognizing the need for a new preservation method, Faden recruited the expertise of professors and students from various disciplines. Alina Arko '23, a mechanical engineering major, designed a special scanner delicate enough to handle the fragile paper reels while capturing them as a continuous video.

Then, computer science majors Yuhan Chen '23 and Jackson Rubiano '27 developed software to recognize frames and stabilize the images, ensuring the films could be viewed as originally intended, projected in a fluid sequence.

"I like to work on things at the intersection between humanities and sciences," says Rubiano. "Having that opportunity to bring something forgotten back into light and for an audience to see was really cool."

The films represent a mix of genres, including wartime propaganda, instructional exercise reels, early anime and mythological stories featuring ninjas, samurai and fantastical creatures from Japanese folklore.

From the beginning, Faden's goal was preservation, not restoration. "We wanted to show the films warts and all — with their inconsistencies, the perforations in the frame, and the over-scanning — so the audience could see how the film is working. A restoration project would remove all that."

In the summer of 2024, Faden and a group of Bucknell students traveled to Japan in search of more paper films. Between visits to museums, shrines and temples, they examined additional reels, deepening their understanding of Japan's cinematic past.

"It gave me some perspective about the history and culture of Japan, which helped me understand the films that I had been working on for about a year at that point," says Rubiano.

Among their discoveries was a unique find: a hand-drawn cartoon sketched on the back of one of the paper films, presumably by a teenager projecting the film. "That was my favorite film," says Rubiano. "It was so cool to see in the mind of a teenager from 80 years ago and preserve and share their contribution to history, even if we don't know their name."

In August, the digitally preserved films were screened at a Brooklyn theatre. "I thought we would have six people, aside from my family, who were forced to go," Faden joked. Instead, the event was packed, with 75 people turned away once the venue hit capacity.

In honor of his work on the Japanese Paper Film Project, Faden has been awarded the 2025 Sumie Jones Prize for Project Leadership in Japan-centered Humanities by the Association for Asian Studies.

What's next?

Building on the success of their research, Faden and a team of Bucknell students will return to Japan this summer to continue their work. Donations are being accepted to support their work.

Additionally, the films are attracting worldwide attention. They will be featured at these upcoming screenings:

• March 27: Chicago

• March 28: Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

• April 12: Santa Barbara, Calif.

• April 13: Los Angeles

• June 14–15: Tokyo

• June 21–22: Niigata, Japan

• June 24–25: Osaka

• June 26: Kyoto, Japan

• June 28–29: Ehime, Japan

• July 6: Hiroshima, Japan

• October 5: Pordenone, Italy