We are delighted to welcome several special guests and expert contributors to the Archive Screening Day for the sessions running alongside our film programme.

Keynote speaker: Danny Leigh

We are thrilled to welcome Danny Leigh as our keynote speaker for the event. Familiar to audiences from the BBC’s long-running film programme Film 2017, Danny is Senior Curator of Fiction Film and Television at the BFI National Archive and is a novelist, filmmaker, a journalist for The Guardian and Financial Times amongst others, has worked in film education and has programmed films for numerous seasons and festivals. Danny will be giving a personal take on his love of archive film and what it has to offer today’s audiences.

Accessing the archive

In recent years an enormous amount of our screen heritage has been digitised, but how do venues, filmmakers and community groups access this vast array of material? This panel brings together representatives from the BFI National Archive, regional, and commercial archives to talk through their different approaches to this, including partnerships and creative collaborations with examples of previous work. Joining the panel are Beatrice Harbour, Manager, London Screen Archives; Philip Leach, Senior Curator, Media Archive for Central England; Simon McCallum, Archive Projects Curator, BFI; and Madeleine Bates, General Manager – Outreach, FOCAL International. Chaired by Jemma Buckley, Partnerships Manager, ICO.

Programming silent film

Interested in programming silent films but not sure where to start? This session is designed to provide an overview of practical considerations and cultural opportunities for silent cinema. Led by Bryony Dixon, Curator of Silent Film at the BFI National Archive, and followed by a panel discussion with Pamela Hutchinson, journalist and editor of SilentLondon.co.uk; Alison Strauss of Hippodrome Bo’ness and Hippodrome Silent Film Festival and pianist John Sweeney (who will also be accompanying selections onscreen).

How to make 35mm (and other formats!) matter for audiences

Audiences are increasingly drawn to the unique experience of seeing film as it was first seen: on film stock. But with the cost and difficulty of showing prints increasing every year, how can cinemas successfully sell the power of seeing film on film and grow audiences for this experience? How can 35mm have its own ‘vinyl moment’? Join our panel, all of whom take this potentially niche experience to big crowds, to talk marketing and inspiring audiences on the joy of celluloid! With Dominic Simmons, Head of Technical Services at BFI Southbank; Ian Mantgani, Programmer, Badlands Collective; Josephine Botting, ‎Curator of Fiction, BFI National Archive; and Rebecca Hill, Festival and Cinema Events Coordinator, Widescreen Weekend. Chaired by Duncan Carson, Marketing & Communications Manager, ICO.

Special presentations and introductions

In addition to our keynote and cinema panels, all films will be contextualised with introductions. Cecilia Cenciarelli – Head of Research & Special Projects at Cineteca di Bologna and Manager of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – will introduce our screening of Soleil Ô and will present the work of Il Cinema Ritrovato at BFI Southbank’s evening screening of Rapsodia Satanica and Kinemacolor shorts; and the Colour Programme and Women and Animation programme will be presented by BFI National Archive curators Patrick Russell (Senior Curator, Non-Fiction) and Jez Stewart (Curator, Animation) respectively. Selina Robertson, programmer, writer and co-founder of queer feminist film collective Club des Femmes will introduce The L-Shaped Room.

Schedule

Download the full schedule