Our Screen Heritage – BFI
These three new short films seek to demonstrate the history of moving image through the exploration of how a particular subject has been captured for and consumed by audiences over the past century. Falling under the broad theme of ‘how we see ourselves’, each filmmaker has presented their own framing and approach, starting from the prompts of ‘beauty’, ‘protest’, and ‘the world around us’.
The result is three unique works that bring historical footage from the BFI National Archive into conversation with contemporary online digital works to reflect on how our individual and collective experiences and stories have been represented and received through moving image – from the earliest days of film right up to the present day.
Keep Fit
Director: Jo Reid
Duration: 21 mins
Release: 2025
Crynodeb: An exploratory and experimental piece of filmmaking, Keep Fit takes the repetitive and mediative nature of the exercise class itself and presents a ruminative journey through 120 years of fitness and health in moving image. From Calisthenics to at-home yoga, this film is a pensive, melodic take on the focus of the ‘workout’, and how it has evolved in tandem with moving image.
Song of the Suburbs
Director: Graham Williamson
Duration: 21 mins
Release: 2025
Crynodeb: The suburbs are often portrayed as dull, conformist and hermetic. But with over 80% of the UK population calling these areas home, this playful yet empathetic short film challenges enduring stereotypes by centring the experiences and eccentricities of their numerous residents. The development of these spaces, and the narratives surrounding them, has been captured over the past 100 years by early filmmakers, citizen journalists, amateur documentarians and, most recently, a growing charge of online moving image creators – all brought together here to reveal the multiple identities and realities underneath the cultural image.
Threads of Memory
Director: Juliana Kasumu
Duration: 17 mins
Release: 2025
Crynodeb: Unravelling the enduring influence of West African and Caribbean cultural memory on Black British fashion, Threads of Memory explores how migration, identity and resilience alongside an ever-expanding style and social exchange via moving image, shaped the evolution of a fashion movement that redefines authenticity and challenges stereotypes.
- Distributor: BFI
- Booking details: [email protected]
- The films are free to book, available on DVD, DCP or digital download, and the BFI have (limited) additional budget available for venues and festivals to support events and other added-value activity around screenings.
- The filmmakers themselves are keen to support through intros and Q&As.