The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. The British Film Institute ( BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film television Until 2006 it was known as the National Film and Television Archive. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The National Film and Television Archive is the former name of the BFI National Archive.
It collects, preserves, restores and then shares the films and television programmes which have helped to shape and record British life and times since cinema was invented in the late nineteenth century. The majority of the collection is British material but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world. The Archive also collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors.
The collections themselves are accommodated on several sites. The J. Paul Getty, Jr. Sir John Paul Getty, KBE ( September 7, 1932 &ndash April 17, 2003) was a wealthy American-born British Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, named after its benefactor, is the base for much of the work, while approximately 140 million feet of flammable nitrate film is kept separately at a BFI storage site at Gaydon in Warwickshire. Berkhamsted is a historic town of some 19000 people It is situated in the west of Hertfordshire, between the towns of Tring and Hemel Hempstead. Hertfordshire (ˈhɑːtfədʃə(r, abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of In Inorganic chemistry, a nitrate is a salt of Nitric acid with an Ion composed of one Nitrogen and three Oxygen atoms Gaydon is a parish and village in Warwickshire, England, close to Leamington Spa. Geography Warwickshire is bounded to the northwest by the West Midlands Metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to
Film preservation is an ongoing project among filmmakers, historians, archivists, museums, and non-profit organisations to rescue aging film stock and preserve recorded images. The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians archivists Museums and Non-profit organizations to rescue A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage This focuses on Motion picture film For Still photography film see Photographic film. The collections held at the BFI National Archive were started in 1935 by Ernest Lindgren, the first curator of what was then called the National Film Library. Ernest Lindgren ( October 3, 1910 - July 22, 1973) was the first curator of the United Kingdom's National Film Library (renamed National Film It later changed its name to National Film Archive (1955-1992) and National Film and Television Archive (1992-2006). It now comprises over 275,000 feature, non-fiction and short films (dating from 1894) and 210,000 television programmes. In recent years the Conservation Centre has completed a number of much anticipated restorations of a diverse range of film titles. This has included the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, which consists almost entirely of actuality films commissioned by travelling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds or other venues across the U. The Mitchell & Kenyon Film company was a pioneer of early commercial movies based in Blackburn in Lancashire, England at the start of the 20th K. in the early part of the twentieth century.
Films and television programmes are acquired mainly by donation or, in the case of independent television, via funding direct from the TV companies. Emphasis is placed on British productions but whenever possible important and popular movies from overseas are also acquired.
See also
- National Film Registry - the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress
External links
- British Film Institute
- BFI National Archive
- filmarchives-online.eu - Web Gateway to European Filmarchives