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A Short History
of Film Archiving
This article was first given as a paper on the study day, ‘Film Archives and Collections: Exploring
the Sector’ held at Birkbeck College for the AHRB Centre for British Film & Television Studies.
Luke McKernan is Head of Information at the British Universities Film & Video Council.
Last Friday evening, at the Scala first instance, it expresses a sentiment they became of no financial value.
Theatre, was an occasion in many central to any film archiving operation, But there is a further,
respects as significant and memorable viewing film as a time machine that archival twist to the tale, because no
as it was wonderful. It may be left for will make the past or present visible longer is the Kinemacolor Delhi
future generations to realise the full to grateful future generations. Calls Durbar film a lost film. A portion of
extent of its importance – men and for film archives were common in the it has been discovered, in the
women yet unborn who, by the magic early years of filmmaking in this Krasnagorsk film archive in Russia.
of a little box and a roll of film, will country, and it was notable news or Lost films are just occasionally
be enabled to witness the marvels of actuality films such as that of the rediscovered, and this film had been
a hundred years before their age, in Delhi Durbar which were cited as lurking in an unsuspected corner of
all the colour and movement of life. suitable examples for inclusion, not the film archiving world, hidden under
Perverse old grandfathers will no fiction films, unless they perhaps a different name for all those 88 years.
longer be able to indulge disdainfully recorded the performance of some But the twists of fate continue, because
in reminiscences of the superiority of notable stage performer. The review it is not the whole of the film that has
the times ‘when they were boys’; the presupposes that future generations survived. The original film lasted
past will be an open book for all to will share the same interests as those almost three hours – what has survived
read in, and, if the grandfathers in 1912, in this case in a pageant of is around twenty minutes, and that of
exaggerate, they may be convicted by Empire, or that they will still view mostly uninteresting military reviews
the camera’s living record. Man has such a film in the same spirit as when that took place after the main Durbar
conquered most things; now he has it was made. And, despite its romantic ceremonies, and it does not feature
vanquished Time. With the fervour, the passage does the spectacular main ceremonies,
cinematograph and the gramophone acknowledge some limitation of the parades of elephants, and so forth. A
he can ‘pot’ the centuries as they roll film record, which can only confer fragment from the edges of a greater
past him, letting them loose at will, immortality on what is visible to the thing is all that now exists, its story
as he would a tame animal, to exhibit eye. perhaps more interesting that the film
themselves for his edification and The next point is that the that survives itself.
delight. The cinematograph, in short, Kinemacolor film of the Delhi Durbar Why the film survives in this
is the modern Elixir of Life – at any is considered to be a lost film. No form gives us a further lesson in the
rate, that part of life which is visible print is said to survive in any of the nature of film archives and their
to the eye. It will preserve our bodies world’s film archives, and only 88 holdings. This particular section was
against the ravages of age, and the years later those future generations extracted from the main film when
beauty, which was once for but a day, are denied the chance to see what the First World War broke out, and
will now be for all time. would certainly be a film of any film of troop movements was
The above is a review of a considerable interest to us still, from considered good box office. Film has
notable film from 1912, The a number of perspectives. The Delhi this particular quality as a medium,
Coronation Durbar at Delhi, filmed Durbar film was made over twenty whereby you can cut pieces out of it
in the early colour process years before any national film archive and create a whole new work, like
Kinemacolor, and produced by had been established, and the some biological process. Film can not
Charles Urban. It raises a number of company that made it and most of its only be re-edited, it can give birth to
points relevant to a consideration of Kinemacolor productions were lost new works out of itself. The Durbar
the history of film archiving. In the to history, neglected or destroyed once film had been catalogued in the
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British Universities Film & Video Council
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Russian archive as a First World War silent films by a callous film industry should be, and it follows rules laid
production, which in terms of this which had now discovered sound. A down to a large extent by the first
particular edit’s production history statement made at the founding of film archives, following from the
was quite correct. The film was only the Museum of Modern Art’s Film particular nature of the medium itself.
found because a film researcher was Library in New York in 1935 makes An archive, according to the
looking for footage to go into a the aims clear: dictionary, is ‘a repository of public
television production on the history The art of the motion picture records or of records and monuments
of the British Empire, and so the film is the only art peculiar to the twentieth generally’. A film archive, however,
finds itself a new home and a new century. As an art it is practically means a particular process by which
identity, and in the form of the edited unknown and unstudied. … This new a film repository is maintained. A
television programme will eventually and living form of expression, a vital collection of videos on a shelf is not
reside in a television archive. Such force in our time, is such a young art a film archive. It will not last; it
are the complexities of the medium, that it can be studied from its preserves nothing. Inherent in any
and how a film survives and where beginnings; the ‘primitives’ among film archive with a true ‘public good’
alters its history and its meaning for the movies are only forty years old. remit is that word ‘preservation’. Film
those who care for it, or wish to learn Yet the bulk of all films that are is a fragile medium, and in going
from it. through a mechanical
Copyright TWI 2000
Film is not process each time it is
the elixir of life, and viewed necessarily
we now put in suffers from wear-and-
qualifications tear, as well as being
before even subject to inevitable
considering it as a chemical decay that
time machine. That affects both nitrate and
we have come to acetate film stock. A
question its principle was of
messages has not acquiring, in simple
lessened its terms, a master copy
importance, which would then
however – indeed remain inviolate and
the film record unviewed, with
becomes all the duplicate printing
richer for the material and then a
multiplicity of ways viewing print being
in which it can be made from this
interrogated. But A reconstructed colour image from the rediscovered Delhi Durbar film
original, subject to
there is some irony funds, which would
in the fact that when film archives important historically or aesthetically, then become the copy to which the
were eventually established in the whether foreign or domestic, old or public could have access for study.
1930s, it was largely not from an new, are invisible under existing This basic principle has been the
impulse to preserve actuality records conditions. To preserve these films cause of no end of trouble for film
of the past that would otherwise and make them available to the public archives, which have been too often
vanish, but to preserve the best of for study and research is the aim of seen as preventing material from
what was seen as the ‘art of film’. the new Film Library. being seen, sitting on it until those
That is a simplification, certainly (it The focus was to be the film future generations should get the
ignores the anomalous existence of that was deemed important, benefit, not realising that posterity
the Imperial War Museum, which historically or aesthetically, a might just be now.
undertook to preserve official film selectivity borne partly out of limited The history of the national
records of the First World War from resources, but also out of a quite film archive in this country illustrates
its inception in 1917), and there was particular view, from a particular something of the changing territories
effort made to preserve what were point in time, of what sort of film and priorities for moving image
seen as news and actuality records of should be preserved and made archives. In 1935 the British Film
value, but the people who founded available for study. Institute established a National Film
and manned the first film archives Those words ‘to preserve’ Library, with the aim of creating a
were brought up on the burgeoning and ‘to make available’ are of course ‘repository of films of permanent
art film movement (notably Soviet central to the purpose of a film value’. It was recognised even then
films) of the 1920s, and were archive. It is possible to be quite that an ideal archive would preserve
particularly activated by the threat to prescriptive about what a film archive every film, its Committee noting that
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British Universities Film & Video Council
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‘every film has a historical value of ‘national film archive’ has become a Roger Smither and David Walsh,
some kind’. But limited resources collective responsibility. ‘Unknown Pioneer: Edward Foxen
imposed selectivity. It was also In short, the focus has Cooper and the Imperial War Museum
recognised that a system of statutory shifted, and our sense of film history Film Archive, 1919-1934, Imperial
deposit would be essential if the and film culture has shifted. That War Museum Review, no. 9, 1994
archive were not to be continually history and that culture is, or should
holding out a begging bowl. Sixty- be, a far broader and more complex Books
five years on it is still waiting for such picture than the traditional history of James Ballantyne (ed.), The
a system to be instituted (however, a cinema which the national film Researcher’s Guide: British Film,
partial system of statutory deposit has archives were founded to preserve. It Television, Radio and Related
existed for commercial British is necessary to put in that qualification, Documentation Collections (London:
television since 1990). because we need to reflect on why British Universities Film & Video
The National Film Library the attention of students and Council, 2001)
became the National Film Archive in researchers is drawn to certain sectors
1955, by which change of name it of the overall national film archive, Penelope Houston, Keepers of the
posted that its prime purpose was not and not to others. To what extent is Frame: the film archives (London:
to be a lending service but to preserve. there a canon of films obscuring the British Film Institute, 1994)
A further name change in 1993 to the value of other film holdings, other
National Film and Television Archive histories of cinema? What can be done Websites
made clear a responsibility for both to encourage academic or creative Charles Urban, Motion Picture
media that had in fact been in force interest in the less frequented corners? Pioneer
for some while. Now the archive has Is such a potential interest justified? http://website.lineone.net/~luke.mc
undergone a further change of name, What can the history of film teach us kernan/Urban.htm
absorbed within a larger concept of that the history of cinema does not?
BFI Collections, reflecting a BFI wish There are many kinds of film The International Federation of Film
to streamline its operations, and archives and film collections in this Archives (FIAF)
maybe expressing a fear of that very country. The British Universities Film http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/fiaf/
word ‘archive’, with all its & Video Council’s Researcher’s
connotations of something had hides Guide now identifies some 450 The Film Archive Forum
its treasures away, promising them moving image collections in the UK http://ww.bufvc.ac.uk/faf
only for that posterity that never that are open to some degree or other
comes. to researchers. They range from stock
There are in fact four shot libraries to newsfilm libraries to
national film archives in this country: subject specialist collections to
the BFI’s, the Imperial War Museum’s television libraries. Few are concerned
Film and Video Archive, the Wales with preservation, but without
Film and Television Archive and the preservation we will end up with no
Scottish Screen Archive. All are film heritage at all. We must never
recognised by FIAF, the international forget this. Meanwhile, let us uncover
federation of film archives, which and learn from all that we can. The
also has as a member the North West variety and the complexity and the
Film Archive. The North West is one richness of the moving image records
of a network of eight so called regional of our time should not only entrance
film archives, a network which has those future generations that were
been growing since the founding of evoked in 1912, but demand our
the East Anglian Film Archive in fullest attention here and now.
1976. All of these archives are
represented collectively as the Film
Archive Forum. This blossoming of Luke McKernan
what have been best described as Head of Information, BUFVC
public sector moving image archives Luke@bufvc.ac.uk
shows how really the concept of a
‘national film archive’ is now wider
than one institution could or should
represent, and reflects in particular References:
moving image productions made for
and by local communities that were Articles
not considered when the notion of a ‘The Durbar in Kinemacolor’, The
‘repository of films of permanent Bioscope, 8 February 1912
value’ was first put forward. The
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British Universities Film & Video Council
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