Artefacts Too

British Artists' Film and Video in Documents

9 July - 24 August 2007

Artefacts, June 2007, BFI Southbank Mezzanine Gallery. A display reflecting the multiple origins and DIY spirit associated with artists' film and video, including hand-printed posters from the 60s, throw-away fliers from the 80s, artists' notebooks, sketches and storyboards, and photographic documentation of exhibitions and other artist-led events from the 30s to the present.

Following the success of Artefacts, we were pleased to display in our Reading Room a small collection of out-takes (items that had to be omitted from the original exhibition) augmented with items from our own collection. Ephemera drawn from the British Artists Film & Study Collection at Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London, together with more substantial catalogues, books and periodicals from the BFI National Library collections.

Access is free during normal Reading Room opening times, either on presentation of a ticket stub from one of the David Curtis' five part Artists' Film & Video season at BFI Southbank, or by special arrangement.

Periodical Collection

Specialist film periodicals such as Close Up (1927-33) and Film Art (1933-37), both edited by and contributed to by filmmakers, helped develop an active filmmaking culture by generating passionate debate.  The BFI National Library holds a large collection of periodicals which offer insight into the development of critical styles and attitudes, some of which have been published on microfilm as the Little Magazines Series. 

Listed here are periodicals which could be of interest to those researching British film and video art. Where a gap in our collection is indicated (*) we would most gratefully accept donations.

• *Afterimage (1974-present)
• Cinim (1966-1969)
• Close up (1927-1933)
• Film Art (1933-1937)
• Film (1933)
• *Filmmakers Europe (1977-1981)
• *Filmwaves (1998-present)
• *Independent Video (1982-1986)
• *Life and Letters Today (1935-1937)
• Mute (1996-2005)
• New Cinema (1936)
• Pix (1993/4-2001)
• Readings (1977)
• Sequence (1946-1952)
• Sight and Sound (1932-present)
• *Undercut (1981-1990)
• Vertigo (1993-present)
• *Videographic (1989-1990)

Special Collections

The development of experimental cinema, the advent of sound, the introduction of colour - all these landmarks can be traced through the the Film Society programmes. The work of the Film Society is recorded for posterity in the material donated by Lord Sidney Bernstein to the BFI National Library. The collection includes items such as correspondence, programme notes, press clippings, pressbooks, accounts, the transcript of a radio programme, and David Robinson's manuscript of "The career and times of the Film Society".

The Film Society 1925-1939: a guide to collections (PDF, 481kb)