Inside the Archive #53: Remembering Ian Betts

Caring for films is in effect caring for audiences and viewers, and is an act of dedication which can last a lifetime. We’re writing this piece to celebrate the life of Ian Betts, an incredibly dear friend and colleague who wore his dedication to caring for audiences and films as naturally as he wore his lab coat. Ian died in February this year and Saturday 25th October would have been his 63rd birthday. He joined what was the BFI National Film Archive in 1986, and prepared a print of Tokyo Story (1953) in between its screenings at the Prince Charles cinema in London and University of Glasgow as his last act of care for film.

If you’ve seen a film print from the BFI in a cinema, in the UK or around the world, watched a BFI Blu-ray or DVD made from an archive film, visited the BFI for research, worked on a digitisation of a film from the BFI National Archive, or enjoyed watching digitised films from the archive in the Mediatheque or BFI Player; then the chances are you could do so because Ian wound, inspected, identified, repaired and prepared the film reels. It might be possible to calculate the miles of film he cared for over his career, but it’s better to feel how much love and humility he put into each one. In the greatest sense, he approached every reel, every foot of film, on its own merits.

Ian was a colleague, leader and friend to hundreds of us over nearly 40 years at the BFI. He had unfailing patience in all situations and new entrants to the world of film archiving instinctively found him a reassuring and generous teacher. He was continually excited at how much there is to learn and to share. Ian gladly shared how to read, interpret and find the trails of arcane archive paper records and people would often come to him when a film item was proving tricky to locate. He had a knack of asking just the right question, to guide his colleague to the appropriate paper records, often revealing hidden data about its provenance or path through the archive. Many an item was located this way and Ian was brilliant at both reading and educating colleagues. No doubt, this work appealed to Ian’s love of setting and solving puzzles. He combined this with the joy of being in nature and community through Geocaching. A Geocache in his memory is being created by his friends and colleagues, as one tribute to him.

You will find similarly dedicated people in film and television collections worldwide, making sure that their collections are cared for and seen. They may not publish, introduce or promote, but all of us as audiences rely on their expertise and service. Ian was a thoroughly nice chap, gentle and kind, a good listener, funny and rather cheeky. He was incredibly fond of terrible puns which we all miss.

Earlier this year, Ian received a new archive print of Powell and Pressburger’s Contraband (1940) on return from several screenings in North and South America. He wrote his usual meticulously concise report of his findings and the treatments he carried out on the five reels, and finished with a sentence that is somehow very evocative of the love and care he always showed for the people and films he worked with: “The film is now ready to be returned to location, but I will hold onto it for now, pending any further queries”.

– Kieron Webb, Head of Conservation on behalf of BFI National Conservation Centre colleagues

The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.