There are tons of historic short films (newsreels, corporate videos, documentaries) available to watch for free on the British Film Institute's ‘Britain on Film’ subsite. 🎥🎬 Browse with a map here... player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-f... - ThreadSky

raynewman.bsky.social • 103 days ago

There are tons of historic short films (newsreels, corporate videos, documentaries) available to watch for free on the British Film Institute's ‘Britain on Film’ subsite. 🎥🎬

Browse with a map here...

https://player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film/map#/53.54207789/-3.663245160/6///

Comments

davidowen.bsky.social•102 days ago

Thank you for that link….although it’s a rabbit hole I may not come out of for some time !

unfortunatalie.bsky.social•103 days ago

📌

raynewman.bsky.social•103 days ago

Or use the search here:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film

raynewman.bsky.social•103 days ago

It's region locked, though. If you're outside the UK you can see a selection of the films on YouTube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvkgGofjDzgHRWM46yYHJbV5FNUlHiOW&si=-pH8XUHRtKKraaZt

raynewman.bsky.social•103 days ago

‘I Am a Mobile Librarian’, for example, takes us to Hertfordshire in 1960.

selmerguy.bsky.social•102 days ago

"I Am a Mobile Librarian" would have been a good Gilbert & Sullivan song.

p-terg.bsky.social•103 days ago

That was a very noisy library for 1960!

Love the librarian’s accent!

I know our local library conducts the same service even today; mostly for our elderly and disabled borrowers.

serenaralston.bsky.social•103 days ago

Ahh thank you so much Ray for
sharing. Loved this. What a wonderful service. I had a somewhat turbulent childhood and my local library was an oasis of kindness and calm.

serenaralston.bsky.social•103 days ago

I still find public libraries magical to this day. I can never quite get over the fact that I can take out a book for free. But it’s not just about books - the library can be the best of us, there for everyone, an exemplar of public service. But austerity has not been kind to libraries.

bcky.bsky.social•103 days ago

(I promise I just happened to open the app at the right moment, I don’t have a bat signal for the word ‘librarian’)

raynewman.bsky.social•103 days ago

I nearly @-ed you!

barmas.bsky.social•103 days ago

Looks like I’ll be asking my kid for VPN advice again. 😄

hutsutgirl.bsky.social•103 days ago

This is great! I have used their site to explore the public information films - fascinating - but didn't know about the regional search feature. Thank you! 🙏 (Popping in the PIF link for others, in case it's of interest)

hutsutgirl.bsky.social•103 days ago

📌

thexclaim6.bsky.social•103 days ago

Includes one of my favourites, near to where I live - ‘Best of Friends: Russell and Victor’ (1976) about two kids killing time in the industrial wasteland of 70s Leeds https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-best-of-friends-russell-and-victor-1976-online

zoomburst.substack.com•103 days ago

Wow! Thats a really great link! Thanks

emmabutler.bsky.social•102 days ago

I found a documentary about Kingston in the 70s bemoaning how all Kingstons cinemas had turned into bingo halls and Kingston was a dump now - quite funny to think of when people say Kingston was better in the past