The BFI National Archive, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, is bringing online moving image to the UK’s national collections of film and television for the first time and will have boosted the collection with over 400 British online moving image works into the archive by 2026.
BFI curators are currently identifying online moving image works from the last 30 years and today also launching a call out for the public to recommend works which celebrate the medium’s diverse creativity of form and content, reflecting stories from across the UK that will join the nation’s new collection.
Recommendations can be made via a submissions survey. The new online moving image acquisitions programme is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund awarding National Lottery funding.
A celebration of the stories of now, this new curated collection will trace the technological advancements in online moving image through the range of platforms creators are choosing to bring their work to – from TikTok to YouTube, X to Snapchat as well looking at the work of early internet creative pioneers and defunct video platforms like Periscope and Vine.
Patrick Russell, BFI National Archive Senior Curator said,“As custodians of the nation’s moving image history, this addition to the BFI National Archive will be a vital and fascinating record for generations to come of this phenomenal new type of filmmaking and a reflection of our society in the early 21st century.”
To formally launch the programme, BFI hosts a one-day symposium, Archiving in the Age of (Super) Abundance at BFI Southbank with invited content creators, archivists, UK cultural institutions and academics in support of project research with a series of talks exploring the history, development and current landscape of online moving image and posing questions around the new opportunities, unique benefits and challenges the form offer its creators and audiences over more traditional ‘mainstream’ production/distribution.
The LGBTQIA+ creator, writer directors ‘Dead Sweet’, the team behind the Nottingham set viral hit comedy web series, Charity Shop Sue (2019) are part of the symposium line up, sharing their experiences of building their online audience, and embracing all that the online space had to offer them. Charity Shop Sue is also one of the first online works to be brought into the archive as part of the acquisition programme.
Matthew Chesney, Timothy Chesney, and Stuart Edwards of Dead Sweet said, “We are beyond thrilled and deeply honoured that Charity Shop Sue has been selected by the BFI National Archive as part of this project. When we first started back in 2012, we could never have imagined the love and devotion Sue and her volunteers would inspire. What began as a tribute to our hometown and the strong women who raised us has become something so much bigger. Knowing that our work has resonated so deeply, especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, is incredibly humbling. As queer creators, having our voices and creativity recognised in this way means the world to us. We hope this inspires others to be fearless in creating and sharing their own stories online, without waiting for permission.”
Charity Shop Sue Producer and actor Vicky McClure MBE adds, “There’s some shows and characters that make comedy sparkle, that’s Charity Shop Sue. The makers of Charity Shop Sue continue to show the beauty in our unique industry, letting the creatives create, taking risks & allowing the world we inhabit to shine bright.”
The arrival of the internet has democratised the moving image, with former barriers to access – as creators and consumers – dissolved or weakened significantly. Intrinsic to online moving image is its diversity and this diversity is what the BFI’s new collection programme is looking to celebrate, embracing a range of creative voices and content forms and a breadth of stories being told. The selected works will also reflect the widening audience reach of this work, including many communities who have been marginalised and underserved by mainstream media.
The BFI is keen to hear from UK public who actively consume online content in all its forms. What has entertained, inspired or struck a chord over the history of online moving image. From vlogs to advertising to web series, online moving image encompasses music video and fiction shorts, independent documentary and citizen journalism, official public information, oppositional campaigning, corporate promotion and training, charity awareness-raising, educational resources, personal testimonies, formal experiments and much more. What’s in scope: British ‘online moving image’ titles, meaning work made and distributed specifically for the online or internet sphere (from 1999 to the present day) in the UK. What’s not in scope: TV or films which are or have been distributed on commercial, subscription-based platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+.
