Silent Cinema

The bfi National Archive has one of the most extensive collections of early cinema in the world reflecting over 70 years of collecting policy. As well as actively collecting all British film from this era, the Archive has a wide range of early film from Europe and the United States.

Most of the films in the silent collections are held uniquely by the bfi National Archive and the collection is in constant use by film festivals, cinemas, educators and researchers. The collections include all kinds of film made between 1895 and 1929, encompassing fiction and non-fiction, from the first films lasting less than a minute to the sophisticated feature and includes actualities, newsreels, comedies, drama, documentary and drama documentary, home movies, animation, travelogues, industrial films and advertising.

The films in the early film collections, whether great classics of the silent cinema, or orphaned fragments of celluloid with no known provenance, record the early part of the 20th century. They show real people and real events, they record performers and performance styles as well as representing the predominant mass entertainment media of the time. They also document how we got from there to here - the development of the film - industrial changes had a significant bearing on the development of the film so the context provided by the trade and public press is vital. These documents can be found in the bfi's National Library. Technical developments too are represented; early sound experiments, colour processes and filming styles.

Silent cinema has its own unique characteristics and requires more elucidation than the later and more familiar sound films that come after it. The international context of these films cannot be ignored; there was in this period a degree of integration in the international film trade that is not found later. The collections need to be seen in context as part of the bigger picture of world film history.