UKFC appeals for rare films
The UK Film Council (UKFC) has appealed to the nation to look for rare film to improve the national archives. This is part of its Strategy for UK Screen Heritage.
It may be recalled that in October 2007, the then Culture Secretary had announced an award of £25m to safeguard the future of the UK’s national and regional film archives and collections. With a view to implementing this, the UKFC, working with the nine Regional Screen Agencies across England, has launched the Survey of Moving Image Collections Held in the Regions.
The proposed survey will gather information about the type of moving image collections that exist across England, where and how they are being stored and used, and whether there are any barriers that prevent the owners from enjoying the collections.
Tim Cagney, head of UK Partnerships at the UKFC, said, “Film brings the nation’s history of culture and society alive like no other medium can, and over recent years we’ve seen a real increase in the public appetite for archives of film from the last century. We want to find out what’s out there so that we can find ways for the public to enjoy greater access to these collections, regardless of where they live, and at the same time enable the long term preservation of these rare gems.”
Some priceless material discovered recently includes 800 rolls of early nitrate film by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, discovered by historian Peter Worden in a dilapidated shop basement in Blackburn in 2002. The Mitchell and Kenyon collection is an impressive visual record of late Victorian and early Edwardian British life, and was restored by the British Film Institute after lying unseen for 80 years.
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