North West Film Archive

11/08/2026

Wish You Were Here - we hope you're all enjoying this lovely summer - if you want to look back at summer holidays why not join us for our Wish You Were Here screening at Chester Cathedral next Tuesday evening at 7.30pm
Tickets are on sale here at https://chestercathedral.com/events/event/north-west-film-archive-presents-wish-you-were-here

29/06/2026

Our brilliant North West Film Archive is bringing powerful screen stories to new and younger audiences thanks to support from BFI National Lottery Screen Heritage Fund 🎥

The fund will enable two new projects – one to increase engagement with young people and ensure their voices are represented in the archive, and another to open up one of the UK’s most important community video collections, capturing working-class activism in Hulme.

16/06/2026

We're delighted to be at FOCAL International Festival of Archives In London today meeting archive and footage licensing professionals and talking about our work.

Our Geoff is alongside Graham from Yorkshire Film Archive & North East Film Archive promoting these important northern collections.

Geoff and Graham are also speaking on a panel this afternoon:
“Regional Archives – Value and Viability: Sustaining and Sharing Unique Stories”

15/05/2026

Big congrats to Chris Paul Daniels for his screening and Q&A at the BFI yesterday evening as part of the Experimenta programme organised by Will Fowler.
It was such a treat to see our footage on the big screen at NFT3 through Chris's incredible work "Is There Anybody There?" and "Give Yourself A Round Of Applause"

14/05/2026

Two days to go!
Reserve your free place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scouting-skating-hanging-around-youth-on-film-tickets-1984042458402

11/05/2026

We're pleased to announce that staff from the archive will be at the Focal Festival of Archives in London next month to share our work and collections with the archive community. See you there.

08/05/2026

"Scouting, Skating, Hanging Around: Youth on Film" will be shown on Saturday 16th of May. This showcase of films from our collection explores portrayals of young people, their aspirations and society's attitudes towards them.

This is a free screening at MMU as part of the Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival.

🗓️ Saturday 16 May

⌚ 12 - 1.30pm

📍 Grosvenor East Building, Manchester Metropolitan University

💬 All films shown with descriptive closed captioning

Age: 12+

We'll be showing a selection of clips drawn from the last 100 years, including girls skateboarding in Cumbria, the Salford Lads Club enjoying Aberystwyth and a Chaplinesque fable about the Scouts.

Joining us are Glyn Potts, CEO of Greater Manchester Youth Federation, and Kevin Wong of the Festival team, to reflect on the footage and discuss attitudes towards young people, particularly with concern to crime, and youth work more generally.

The Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival runs from 7th May to 19th June.

Films excerpts shown here:
NWFA 2007 - 'So it Goes'
NWFA 475 - 'A Pretty Fair Week's
NWFA 123 - 'The Man Who Changed His Mind'
RR 2519 - 'Skate Like a Lass'
NWFA 4949 - 'A Change of Air'
N4673219 - 'You Don't Like Me... But You Don't Even Know Me'

21/04/2026

On the day the city of Salford celebrates its centenary of being given city status, we thought we'd share this short piece of film made around the time. While sadly its only the remaining fragments of what looks like it was a longer film from 1925 Gateway to South East Lancashire gives a great glimpse of some of Salfords well known locations.
Enjoy it here at https://vimeo.com/510177027
How many can you recognise and how different do they look today?

Promotional film for Salford - general views of streets and main junctions are followed by a look at the borough's parks and gardens and a brief glimpse of Manchester racecourse. This appears to be extracts from a longer film, as some intertitles are not followed by footage. NWFA Film No. 5853 Title...