Here’s an old post from June 2007. What I can say is that since this was written I visted the NFT and was impressed by what they did with it but at present the library’s future is still uncertain. Which is the bigger issue…

Yikes!

First they spend loads of money re-vamping the hole that is the National Film Theatre underneath Waterloo Bridge then the repercussions of a funding freeze have started to hit home with the BFI proposing to export its publishing arm out to an independent partner (note the swipe at the “philistine and commercially oriented” Film Council here). Exactly how this partner might be is a cause of considerable concern.

For the academics and people who write books this is likely bad news but I have little contact with that kind of world. The implication that the press (ScreenDaily, The Guardian etc) have swiftly picked up upon however is that the BFI archive is threatened or at least is going to be severely compromised.

Already the BFI library and archive is a double edged sword because, supported by public money as it is, it is only readily available to people who live in London. It’s a great resource but not a very accessible one.

Online it’s even worse – and this is where it should be more inclusive for people who don’t live in the South-East. The digitised archives are available in a limited and clunky form online (BFI Film & TV Database - this should blow IMDB off the internet but it doesn’t) but real money is being made by selling information the BFI has been dedicatedly compiling for decades out to the private sector of educational publishing via companies like ProQuest (Film Index International). Needless to say this information is much more complete and far better to use. Even Sight & Sound the flagship film magazine funded by the BFI doesn’t have a proper web presence.

So educational institutions in the UK, have to pay a private firm to access information from a public institution funded by tax-payers money.

As per usual our cinematic heritage is already being sold out through the financial pressures imposed upon the BFI and now this is getting steadily worse with the prospect of a cash-strapped BFI weighing up the options and the assets - the National Film and Television Archive. No doubt for the BFI to continue existence in this kind of pressured environment it has to sell itself or find a patron.

The tragedy is that already attacks at the Film Council, the body who grant the BFI its budget, are surfacing. Without going too deeply into the successes and failures of the Film Council, the last few years have been steadily getting better and better for British Film. People are watching British films at the cinema and renting DVDs of British films. With Treasury film related tax re-jigs hitting production hard and the inevitable loss of confidence that not having a UK film in competition at Cannes this year brings the vultures are gathering.

Keep reading BFI Watch for more information.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 1:57 am and is filed under UK Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.