BFI Mediatheque coming to Newcastle's Discovery Museum

The public will have access to more than 1,800 films and television programmes from the BFI National Archive as well as new material and specially curated collections.

To mark the opening, the BFI has collaborated with the Northern Region Film and Television Archive to create a new collection of films and TV programmes about the North East of England.

The museum will host more than 50 specially curated collections, includinga celebration of British fashion; rare home movies from India and Tibet and a century of Jewish representation on British screens.

BFI Director Amanda Nevill said: “Film provides such a tantalising view of how the people of Britain lived, worked and played over the past century or more.  The public has a real appetite to see more and it is the job of the BFI to look after the national collection of archive film and television and make it more widely and easily available to everyone, regardless of where they live.

“We always said when we opened our first Mediatheque at BFI Southbank in London that our aim was to replicate it in every nation and region of the UK and we are several steps closer to achieving that aim now. This is our fourth Mediatheque outside London, giving more people across the UK the chance to experience and enjoy unprecedented access to their national film and television heritage.”