The Educational and Television Films Collection (ETV)

"For us, the most important of all the arts is the Cinema" Lenin

What is Educational and Television Films?

Educational and Television Films (Educational and Television Films) is a unique and comprehensive collection of films from the UK and the former socialist world. Donated to the BFI in 2002, Educational and Television Films specialises in documentary footage of all aspects of life, society and history under a political system that dominated two thirds of the planet for nearly a century.

Background

Educational and Television Films Films was originally created as Plato Films in 1950, at the beginning of the all pervasive political paranoia of the Cold War, with the aim of distributing progressive films from socialist countries to UK audiences. It has always been recognised as an invaluable resource for the study of Socialist history in the twentieth century, not only for film and programme makers but also the academic community and interested organisations. Educational and Television Films footage has appeared extensively in ground-breaking series such as People's Century and The Cold War.

Materials

With its extraordinary and vivid moving image materials amassed over half a century, Educational and Television Films has an established reputation as a unique source of footage of socialist organisations and countries. As well as films from the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe, there is material from Cuba, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea, Africa and the Arab nations. There is extensive footage of wars throughout the twentieth century, including the First and Second World Wars, and Ivor Montagu's Republican Spanish Civil War material. Educational and Television Films also holds important films from the British Labour movement, and all films from the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The remarkable variety of footage available ranges from some of the most important historical events of the Twentieth Century to actuality scenes of everyday life, including:

• Chile, events in 1973
• UK Means Test marches
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Newly independent African Republics
• Great Leap Forward, China
• General Strike, 1926
• Tsar Nicholas II with his family and the court
• Soviet Space Programme 1957 -1988
• Army and May Day parades
• Mao and the Long March
• Soviet perspective on the Berlin Wall
• Treatment of US prisoners in Vietnam
• Soviet exploration of US foreign policy
• Castro and Guevara at a guerrilla camp
• Partisan activity in wartime Bulgaria
• British Brigaders in the Spanish Civil War

Educational and Television Films today

In 2002, the Educational and Television Films collection was donated to the bfi National Archive where it complements and increases existing coverage of films and documentation. Its transfer will not only ensure long-term preservation of this collection in the bfi National Archive but also a continued commitment to providing widest possible access to audiences world-wide.

bfi Archival Footage Sales

Footage from the Educational and Television Films collection is available for use through bfi Archival Footage Sales which handles all commercial requests for titles held at the bfi National Archive, the largest collection of moving images in the UK. Clients include British and international film and television directors, producers and researchers, and bfi archival footage has appeared in documentaries and fiction films worldwide.

First World War footage

To coincide with the bfi's theatrical release of All Quiet on the Western Front, bfi Archival Footage Sales has placed online extracts from some of the remarkable First World War footage held in the Educational and Television Films Collection.

For further information, please contact:

bfi Archival Footage Sales

21 Stephen Street

London

W1T 1LN

Tel: 020 7957 4842

Fax: 020 7436 4014

Contact form

Booking Prints

16mm and 35mm prints can also be hired for theatrical and non-theatrical screenings through the bfi bookings department. Contact form