Mediatheque

In the last month we have added over 200 titles to the BFI Mediatheque - all available to view free of charge at BFI Southbank. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

The Lure of Crooning Water (1920)
The Rat (1925)
Battling Bruisers: Some Boxing Buffoonery (1925)
The Only Way (1926)
Shooting Stars (1928)
The First Born (1928)
Nyimsao and Kheseto: A Tale of the Naga Hills (1928)
The Song of Ceylon (1934)
First a Girl (1935)
The Drum (1937)
The Alien Sky (1956)
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
The World Ten Times Over (1963)
Horror of Darkness (1965)
The Connoisseur (1966)
Traitor (1971)
O Fat White Woman (1971)
Shakespeare - Or Bust (1973)
Blooming Youth (1973)
A Passage to England (1975)
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1978)
Don't Be Silly (1979)
3 Minute Heroes (1982)
Inappropriate Behaviour (1987)
Priest (1994)
My Night With Reg (1997)

We have also added 4 rarely seen Technicolor shorts shot by Jack Cardiff in 1938 - A Village in India, A Road in India, Temples of India and Delhi.

Details of all new additions will be added to the Mediatheque website very shortly.

ChristineCB

Thanks, M! Much appreciated, as always.

Wait wait... is there anything I can badger you about to help it be released more quickly? For example, do you have favorites that, with enough public outcry, could be given higher priority?

If so, I hope you'll let us know and maybe we can mount such a campaign. Obviously, anything we can do to benefit your favorites will be gains for us as well.

ChristineCB

Many of these titles in your list are unfamiliar to me, or recognized names but I've never seen them. Do you have any particular favorites of these? (THE RAT is part of my on-going education into Silent Film Appreciation.)

Rob Compton

We visited the BFI and Mediatheque yesterday. I was very impressed with it - the process was technically smooth, and the choice of films was wide-ranging.

Mrs C and myself came away after a hour or so watching World War 2 Ministry of Information archive films - fascinating! The next stage for me would be to have these films available to all via the web - though I do well understand the legal and technical issues that lie in the way of such a move. But how worthwhile it would be - it would make these minority interest films available to a wide audience and overcome the commercial problems that would stop them being issues on DVD.

I think the BFI are to be commended for a really interesting move in opening Mediatheque.

rgds
Rob

troubleasusual

So what if the Southbank is about as far away from where you stay as it is possible to be without doubling back? I live in Aberdeen. Yes, Aberdeen. I am desperate to see 'Horror of Darkness' (1965, Wednesday Play), but there is buckley's chance of me getting down there to see it. What can a poor girl do?

Mediatheque

Afraid we can't offer you the promise of a Mediatheque in in Aberdeen quite yet, however the BFI is currently working with partners to develop Mediatheques across the UK. The first of these is scheduled to open in Derby in July this year.

Mediatheque

Many thanks for your enthusiastic feedback. Unfortunately the BFI is the rights holder of only c10% of the films in the Mediatheque, so we are not able to exploit another rights holder's films online. However, we are currently developing the BFI's presence on YouTube. Only a handful to titles so far, but we will be adding a lot more over the next few months.