Undocumented
Get involved with The New Black Film Collective and London’s Screen Archives exciting new project, Undocumented.
Undocumented seeks to address the lack of Black stories in screen archives through a public programme that deepens community engagement through practical, discursive and intergenerational activities and sessions.
London’s Screen Archives (LSA) is a unique network of over 70 organisations across London with a collective vision – to preserve and share London’s history on film over the last 100 years through their collections. Archives play a pivotal role in telling the stories of London and Londoners, and it is integral that Black communities have a place amongst these. LSA is managed by Film London, the capital’s screen industries agency, who alongside their pledge to sustain, promote and develop London as a global content production hub, also support the development of the city's new and emerging filmmaking talent and invest in a diverse and rich film culture.
In collaboration with The New Black Film Collective (TNBFC) and thanks to support from the BFI awarding National Lottery funding, over the next year, we will be running free screenings, coffee mornings, panel discussions and oral history projects. We will show treasures from the archive, and encourage people to document and share their own stories. For this first phase of Undocumented project we will be based in Southwark, Lambeth, Newham and Hackney, all of which have rich public archives that are also members of the LSA network. As part of the LSA network we work with all our members to digitise their films and ensure the long-term sustainability of their moving image collections, as well as offering opportunities for public engagement through screenings and events, volunteering programmes, training and education. Based across these four boroughs, we will connect with local community groups to host and co-curate activities revolving around screen archives, building dialogue and interest in local histories, legacies and celebrations including Windrush day in June.
As another strand of the Undocumented project that shares the same ambition to make archives more accessible, the LSA collections will be featured across TNBFC’s and Reclaim The Frame’s programmed screenings, through complementary and curated archive content that introduces their films. TNBFC has a range of programmed screenings across the year which foreground Black led film, and Reclaim The Frame works to also showcase film from minoritised identities with a focus on filmmakers of marginalised genders. Through integrating moving image from public archive collections with contemporary cinema, we hope to provide yet another entry point to the wealth of material held by the LSA network and change the context in which archive film is seen and engaged with.
We are excited to bring together speakers from across the sector for a panel discussion at TNB XPO to discuss the importance of representation in the archive and delve further into what the Undocumented project entails and its long term goals.
If Undocumented sounds like a project you are interested in, keep an eye on our website for more events and activity, and get in touch if you have any home movies or other films that you think should be preserved for generations to come.