Visit to the North West Film Archive

As part of our research and in preparation for the project launch event, a group of volunteers from the project went to The North West Film Archive in Manchester. Here we learnt about how The North West Film Archive preserves our local film heritage and how film is restored and stored. We were kindly given a tour of the archive and had the privilege of going into the film vaults to see where and how films are kept in all their different formats.

We also viewed some selected screenings from the film archives with a view to screening them at the project launch event. The screenings we watched and screened at the project launch were a 1937 film about the Odeon Cinema Chain called ‘Romance at the Odeon’, a short film called ‘Do you want Sunday Cinema and games?’ which was made in 1941 as part of a campaign for Sunday Cinema opening, and also ‘Candid camera visits ABC Preston’ which was made as a publicity film for the ABC chain made in 1959. Each of the films took a nostalgic look back at how cinemas once were and what a big part they played in society

This image shows two of the project volunteers Johnno & Sean at The North West Film Archive.