NW Screen Heritage gets 130k funding boost

The Digital Film Archive Fund (DFAF), a UK Film Council lottery fund managed in the region by Northwest Vision and Media, has awarded over £130,000 to organisations in the region in a bid to increase public access to regional screen heritage.

The funds have been offered to Cumbria County Council, festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture Abandon Normal Devices, production companies Hurricane Films and Media 19, Blackpool’s tourism department visitBlackpool and the Turnpike Gallery, part of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust.

Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the digital and creative industries in the region, has awarded the money to allow these organisations to provide screen heritage to as many people as possible, through a variety of platforms including screenings, festivals and public spaces.

This is the second round of DFAF delivered by Northwest Vision and Media, which awarded £125,000 to organisations including the North West Film Archive and National Museums Liverpool.

Deborah Parker, Head of Audience Development at Northwest Vision and Media said: “We’re delighted to be supporting these organisations in the delivery of programmes which will ensure wider access to the UK's screen heritage. This is the first time we’ve been able to offer this fund across such a wide area in the region, with some fantastic projects in Cumbria, Blackpool, Wigan and Liverpool.

“Moving images bring our history alive like no other medium can. We want the public to enjoy greater access to this content in the digital age, regardless of where they live, and at the same time secure the long term preservation of these materials.”


The following DFAF funds awards have been offered for 2009:

£30,000 has been awarded to Cumbria County Council to deliver ‘Capturing Cumbria’, a community-based film archive and web project. The funds will be used to create a programme of outreach activity and continuing exhibitions of screen heritage at the new purpose-built public records facility in Carlisle; including relevant local film archive material from the North West Film Archive.

visitBlackpool has received £30,000 for ‘Cine-Variety’, which aims to use archive footage to evoke a sense of civic pride in Blackpool residents as part of the Showzam Festival. The project provides an opportunity for new and existing audiences to experience rare and unseen early film of the town’s unique heritage.

Liverpool’s Hurricane Films has received £25,000 for its ‘Community Film Hub’. Created by the team behind Terence Davies’ archive feature 'Of Time and The City', the project will invite community filmmakers and groups from across the UK to upload and share their footage in an online hub.

Abandon Normal Devices (AND), a festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture which debuted in Liverpool this month, has been awarded £20,000. The money will be used to produce two filmmaker residencies through the North West Film Archive. These filmmakers will collaborate with emerging musicians and the resulting films will be shown at a series of screenings across the region as part of AND Festival 2010, with a live soundtrack performance from the artist.

Media 19 has been awarded £15,000 to deliver in the region the ‘Campaign Trail (UK)’ project, a nationwide cross-platform initiative where practitioners work with young people to find innovative ways of communicating their ideas, issues and concerns. Media 19 will mentor an experienced media producer to lead a series of creative media workshops around young parents’ schemes, including Project John, which works with young parents and young parents-to-be in Barrow in Furness.

£15,000 has gone to the Turnpike Gallery, part of Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, to deliver ‘Reel Times’. This project will engage local residents of Leigh with screen heritage in order to raise awareness of archive film and its relevance to contemporary life. This will be achieved through an integrated programme of outreach and learning opportunities, culminating in a ten-week exhibition at Turnpike Gallery from May - July 2010.