Dr Emily Munro, National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive Watch our video ‘Tattie Howkin’ Today commercial potato crops are usually gathered by machines but, in the past, the job of lifting potatoes from the soil was done by hand. The Scottish potato harvest once employed thousands of men and women (often migrant workers from […]
Tag: film
In the General Reading Room, you’re not allowed to scream…
40 years ago, in May 1979, a film burst onto cinema screens which still terrifies and immerses audiences to this day. Following the unexpected success of Star Wars in 1977, Twentieth Century Fox wanted to follow it up with another science fiction film aimed at a more mature audience. They optioned Dan O’Bannon and Ron […]
Pride of Islands
Blog written by Gordon Park, Film Curation student at the University of Glasgow As part of my MSc Film Curation course I have been undergoing a placement with the Moving Image Archive at the National Library of Scotland. The outcome of my placement will be two screening events at Kelvin Hall that focus on Scotland’s […]
Happy Birthday Beano!
The Beano is Britain’s longest running comic and celebrated its 80th birthday on 30th July 2018. So a slightly belated happy birthday. We did though throw a party for the Beano at our Kelvin Hall premises in Glasgow on Saturday the 28th of July. We showed for one day only our copy of Beano issue […]
Skills for the Future traineeship placement
Helena Robson began a two week placement in the Library’s Conservation Unit on 16 April. Helena had worked with the conservators as a volunteer in 2015, and she is about to complete her Skills for the Future traineeship on collections digitisation, as part of the programme run jointly by the National Galleries of Scotland and […]
Utopian Nostalgia: Murray Grigor’s Space and Light (1972)
“The twentieth century began with utopia and ended with nostalgia.” Svetlana Boym One of the Moving Image Archive’s treasure troves is a collection of films produced for Films of Scotland, an agency set up by John Grierson for the Empire Exhibition of 1938 to make films promoting Scotland’s social, cultural and industrial heritage to the […]
Frustration, Fascination and Film Identification
From first viewing, it’s nothing very much to look at, a rather grainy piece of silent colour film lasting just under two minutes. Simply recorded as (Lifeboat Launch) the film was dated rather vaguely as ‘1950s’ with an ‘unknown location’. Time to send in the cataloguers.
Behind the scenes at the BBFC : film classification from the silver screen to the digital age
Established by the film industry in 1912 as the nation’s only official and independent classifier of the moving image, the British Board of Film Classification (originally the British Board of Film Censors) has long been a source of fascination – and sometimes a bone of contention – for filmgoers, film-makers and industry figures.
Sausages, steam trains and biplanes : Showcasing 100 years of Scotland on film
Most people when they think of films probably think of the latest blockbusters showing at the cinema; fantastic stories far removed from everyday life, and rarely showing anything of Scotland. What many people don’t realise is that for four decades the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive has been collecting and preserving all kinds […]
Have yourself a very cine Christmas – the power of Frank Marshall’s family films
Only two more sleeps! As children across the land excitedly prepare for Christmas, we unwrap some festive films in the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive. Not only made for fun and entertainment, they also offer evidence of a thriving amateur film-making culture and an emotionally charged record of Scotland’s past. Here are four […]