Cy Young
Biography
I have been professionally involved with film and television for many years. Following experience in cinema management on the Rank circuit, I joined Granada Television as personal assistant to network film buyer Leslie Halliwell, viewing feature acquisitions, and later devised several editions of the company's movie magazine programme Clapperboard.
Next came more than a decade as Film / Video Editor for ATV in Birmingham, then a return to London, contributing as Film / Video Researcher to archive-based productions for BBC, ITV and Channel Four, like Heroes of Comedy, Unseen Eric Morecambe, British Film Forever and The Great British Black Invasion - an oral / social history of Afro-Caribbean immigration.
Writing includes: technical articles about the early days of commercial television for specialist publications like 405 Alive and the FOCAL organisation's house journal Archive Zones, show business profiles for The Independent and The Dictionary of National Biography, and a 7,000 word essay on News Theatres for The Journal of British Film and Television.
I have also supplied biographical / title entries for the BFI's Screen Online database, and am currently working on my own long-term project, British TV Movies, a reference guide to filmed UK television dramas, compiled from original research.
Supporting statement
I am a dedicated user of the British Film Institute's many services, not least the BFI National Library in Stephen Street and the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank. These complementary locations now offer the potential for anyone viewing film or television material in the Mediatheque to access on site the Library's BFI Integrated Database (BID) and immediately discover a wealth of background information on what they have just seen. The (awaited) installation of BID terminals at BFI Southbank to this end (reservable Mediatheque screens have already been installed at Stephen Street) would be a step towards the Directorate's vision of a ‘one-stop' BFI with all facilities housed in one building. Intended to realise this dream is the Film Centre project: but in the current economic and political climate there is no guarantee that the BFI will obtain the funding it deserves.
In these straitened circumstances, there is a clear need for more determined promotion of the National Film Theatre complex as the 'shop window' of the National Film and Television Archive and venue for the unique cinema-going experience that occurs when rarely seen movies from the NFTVA's holdings are screened: not only the recognised masterpieces, but otherwise neglected commercial entertainments. If BFI Southbank's 'front of house' advertising celebrated this diversity in a more genuinely informative style, passers-by en route to the South Bank's rival attractions might be persuaded to acquire BFI membership.
Alas, there has lately been a significant erosion of the NFT's identity and true purpose. Whenever regular screenings are displaced by 'events' bearing only a tenuous connection with the art of cinema itself, pressure on mainstream programming increases. This situation is compounded by the ‘extended run' strands (selected titles monopolising NFT auditoria with a high average of 30 showings per month), which further constrict opportunities to schedule authoritative - let alone comprehensive - retrospectives. If Britain's national repertory cinema cannot provide a greater range of titles, how can a full appreciation of the medium's history be passed on to succeeding generations?
If elected, I would encourage the BFI to play to its strengths. With a more broad-minded and even-handed approach to planning themed seasons (which remain the principal reason for taking out BFI / NFT membership), the BFI can stay ahead of the game: only, however, if optimum technical standards of exhibition, in picture and sound quality, are rigorously monitored and consistently observed throughout BFI Southbank. I would also point out that over the past few years there has been discernible a trivialisation (if not quite marginalisation) of the NFT's raison d'etre: to project films as they were meant to be seen – without gimmicks. If the Board can be convinced of the need to restore and preserve certain basic values through decisive action, including changes in key personnel where appropriate, this should benefit all BFI / NFT members in the long term.
This is the seventh occasion on which I have been a candidate.
I ask for your support.
