Audrey Hepburn in her first screen test. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation ceremony. The first Manchester United football game live on film. The British public can now see up close and personal the vast treasures of the BFI National Archive free through their new Mediatheque facility opening Tuesday, 13th March 2007. The new facility located on the Southbank in London, next to what was the National Film Theatre, includes a new complex with 26 viewing stations and 14 screens. With almost a million items in the collection, the BFI National Archive is considered the largest of its kind in the world.
Material from the collection covers feature films and television as well as rare historical documentary footage from as far back as the turn of the last century. Highlights from the collection include the first pint ever poured on “EastEnders,” Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon and the pilot episode of “Blue Peter”.
Established in 1933, the BFI also works restoring and preserving historical footage to its former glory.
Recent high profile projects have been 800 rolls of film discovered from the late Victorian era known as the Mitchell-Kenyon collection and a road movie shot along the British coastline from 1924 called “The Open Road”. “It is kind of a mind changing, life enhancing experience to see a vision of London as it once was with the colours and the people and the markets. Men are doffing their hats and offering their seats to ladies in 1931.
"It's the astonishing little range differences over time that make you excited to be a Londoner and thrilled to be seeing how time has changed our city,” said BFI Communications Manager Brian Robinson. The Mediatheque facility is a part of the BFI Southbank’s push towards diversifying their offerings and reaching the British public using new technology.
 | | Copyright British Film Institute |
Digital offerings now range from an educational programme called “Screen Online” where academic establishments can access over 1,000 hours of material to the “Creative Archive License Scheme” where the public can make their own films using archive footage. “We're very aware that we're entering a digital age. That digital entertainment is big and there are many different ways to see moving images and we want to be a part of that,” added Brian Robinson. In addition to Mediatheque London, BFI Southbank hopes to have a chain of six to eight Mediatheques up and running throughout Britain in the next two years where the British public could access the archive at a regional art centre or venue. The BFI Southbank Mediatheque is open from 11am until 11pm Tuesday through Sunday. | 
