bfi Collections

Title: bfi Collections

Description: The bfi Collections are part of the British Film Institute set up in 1933 to encourage the art of film.
The collections include the National Film and Television Archive which has the largest collection of film and television titles in Europe. Titles range from the beginnings of cinema to the previous night's television programmes and includes fiction and non-fiction films, newsreels, animation, advertising films, trailers, home movies and videos.
bfi Collections are divided into 3 main sections, covering both archive materials and printed sources:

• National Film and Television Archive, containing film and television titles in both film and video format;
• Stills Posters and Designs Collection, comprising 15,000 movie posters, 20,000 star portraits and c. 7 million stills;
• Special Collection of printed sources containing working papers of film makers, assorted ephemera (programmes, letters, tickets and marketing campaign books promoting British film releases) available in the library of the bfi.

Individual collections are documented by film or television title, cast and production credits. Films are also catalogued by genre and subject. About 25% of the collection is indexed by genre which includes genres for Black and Asian, defined as 'Film or television programmes made by, or for, black people' and 'Film or television programmes made by, or for Asian people', respectively. All the catalogue records for documentary films and television programmes within the collections are being indexed to include terms which reflect the cultural diversity of Britain as part of a 3-year retrospective cataloguing project.
The accrual policy is active and the collection is largely acquired through deposit.
The web page http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/index.html is the gateway to bfi Collections. This site includes access to the catalogue entitled 'Ethnic Nations: Towards a Cinema of Cultural Diversity', which covers information about Black and Asian British cinema, with a wide variety of titles including: Gurinder Chadha's 'I'm British But...' (1989), Safi Faye's 'Letter from My Village (1976)'. Isaac Julien's 'Young Soul Rebels' (1991), Ngozi Onwurah's 'Burning an Illusion' (1981), Penrose Tennyson's 'The Proud Valley' (1939) featuring Paul Robeson. African-American and South Asian cinema are also covered.

Strengths: National repository for film and television. The largest collection of film and television in Europe. The designated film archive for the Public Records Office.

Size: bfi Collections comprise approximately 300,000 films, 200,000 television programmes, 7 million stills from film and television programmes, 15, 000 film posters, 20,000 portraits of actors and film makers.

Catalogue: SIFT (in-house computer database)

Catalogue URL: http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/index.html

Main URL: http://www.bfi.org.uk

Access: Access to materials within bfi Collections is controlled by each of the separate sections (National Film and Television Archive, Stills Posters and Designs Collection and Special Collections) and is dependent on the ultimate use of the materials. Users need to buy day or annual passes for access to the Reading Room of the bfi National Library, annual passes for the Special Collections room and set fees to view the audio-visual materials in the bfi Collections, currently set at £10.00 per hour + VAT for videos and £12.50 per hour + VAT for films. Owing to the unique nature of some of the material and its physical condition there are some access restrictions, therefore it is advisable to contact the bfi with specific requests in advance of a visit.

Acquisition dates: 1933- ongoing

Note: Opening hours: 9.45am to 6.00pm (Monday-Thursday) and 10.00am to 6.00pm (Friday).

Interest: Black, Asian

Complete: complete

Subjects

Asian cultures

Audiovisual materials

Ethnic groups

Cultural studies

Television

Cinema

Film industry

Film makers

Films

Personal/Corporate names

Tennyson, Penrose

Chadha, Gurinder

Onwurah, Ngozi

Robeson, Paul

Julien, Isaac

Places

United Kingdom

South Asia

Caribbean

Africa