Part I: the visit | Part 2: Interview with David Cleveland and Peter White

Chris Taylor reports after a visit to The East Anglian Film Archive in Norwich

The Archive

I’ve had an association with the East Anglian Film Archive since its early days in the1970s when its founder David Cleveland was establishing the collection at the University of Essex in Colchester. I had been collecting and showing old films of my own home town in Southend, and I was asked by the council to find a home for a collection of movies it was holding.

Amazingly some was even nitrate 35mm and so to find a safe home was essential. I passed these films to the Archive and we collaborated in making a series of videos for the Archive to sell, using the Southend films that I had collected and others as they were donated.

Some years later the Archive moved from Colchester to the University of East Anglia and remains a part of the university to this day, although it has recently moved yet again, this time to purpose built premises at the new Norfolk Records Office. The film might be historic, but there’s nothing old and dusty about the premises. They are modern and functional and the archive’s entrance hall is lined with display cabinets with examples of film equipment spanning a whole century.

The primary role of the archive is to collect and maintain the film collection as a record of the social history of the region. This enables broadcasters, historians, people in education and the public to access it and I would urge readers to visit the website to find out more about access to the archive’s collection (www.uea.ac.uk/eafa/).

Another facet of the work of The East Anglian Film Archive is its MA course in Film Archiving. The archive has a staff of eight full and part time archivists also receives help from around 20 volunteers, who take film shows out across the East of England. Annually, the archive's volunteers have direct contact with up to 13,000 people in the region

The Archive preserves original films and video tapes in temperature and humidity controlled vaults where nitrate, colour stock and video materials each have their own environments. Moving racks ensure that space is used optimally. Where collections have been donated from a particular source the donor is identified in the store. I was pleased to see a box with my name on it and one for the collection of the late, great John Wright, he of Movie Maker and Making Better Movies magazines.

The East Anglian Film Archive collection comprises over 60,000 films and videos. The collection includes a large amount of non-fiction material, such as documentaries, television productions, family and personal films, home videos, newsreels, educational films, travelogues. There are films produced by municipalities, councils and government sponsored, as well as advertising films, dramas and an increasing number of feature films relating to the region in some way.

The television collections contain material from regional broadcasters, Anglia television and BBC East from 1959 to the present day. The film archive cares for these collections on behalf of the broadcasters and works closely with both to make sure the films are preserved properly and remain accessible.

The majority of films in the collection arrive through donation or deposit by individuals or organisations who have recognised the importance of having their moving images looked after professionally. The archive collects films on any subject related to the East of England region. Particularly well represented are images of people at work, town and village life, farming and fishing, transport, holidays and family life.

The Archive also collects the work of film and video makers in the region, amateur or professional. Although it is a national collection, discussions are in place, I believe, for the IAC’s film library to be transferred here.

The oldest moving images date from 1896 and the most recent accessions are films and videos made this year. EAFA collects film on all film gauges, video and disc formats, and specialises in the conservation of smaller gauge films, such as standard 8, super 8 and 9.5mm. For movies such as our own the archive has telecine facilities in all the amateur gauges from standard 8 upwards and donated films are copied so that the donor has a copy of his work on his chosen video format. Unless agreed otherwise, the donor also retains copyright and access should he want to have a further copy made in future.

Part 2: Interview with David Cleveland and Peter White

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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