BFI 'Documentary Centenaries' Project Wins Focal International Award

The BFI National Archive's 'Documentary Centenaries' project which included the restoration and release of the BFI DVDs 'Night Mail Collector's Edition' and the four-disc box-set 'Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930 - 1950' won the award for the Best Archive Restoration or Preservation Project at the Focal International Awards 2008, presented last week.
Marking the centenaries last year of five pioneer documentarists, this ambitious project of great importance to the UK's cultural heritage involved the curatorial assessment of each of the filmmakers' entire surviving output.
Some 84 titles were then selected for restoration, preservation and programming for exhibition, touring and release on DVD.
In addition to a major 'Documentary Centenaries' season at BFI Southbank last September and an international tour of 'Humphrey Jennings: Finest Hour', a Collector's Edition DVD of 'Night Mail' was released in partnership with The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) and the Royal Mail, instantly becoming a BFI best-seller.
The critically acclaimed 'Land of Promise' 4-disc box-set, in deluxe packaging complete with a 96-page book, was released in April 2008 and quickly sold out. It is already on its second manufacturing run.
Patrick Russell, Senior Curator for Non-Fiction at the BFI National Archive, accepted the award on behalf of the BFI stated: "It's apt that this project celebrating a collective movement of filmmakers was itself deeply collaborative.
"This award is gratifying recognition of a lot of hard work by many colleagues across different teams in the BFI over the last two years. We are delighted that the essential contribution of our technical archivists, and the sheer quality of their work, is valued so highly in the archival community. And it is immensely encouraging that there is such a public appetite for archival documentary - an important part of our national filmmaking heritage."
Further information is available at: www.bfi.org.uk.
(KMcA)