Heritage Open Day 2023: Go behind the scenes at the BFI National Archive

On Sunday 17 September the BFI John Paul Getty Jr Conservation Centre will open its doors as part of the Heritage Open Days festival. This is a rare opportunity for the public to experience part of the BFI National Archive and see first-hand the specialist skills, technology and vaults which support the conservation of our national collection.

This year’s event will include displays and demonstrations from across our activities including film inspection, video and television preservation, BFI Reuben Library, BFI Replay, collections development, digital preservation, mini tours of our film vault and a demonstration of the history of projection in our theatre. (As this demonstration is held in our on-site theatre, spaces are strictly limited and tickets will be issued by the steward each hour.)

Doors open at 10:30 and close at 16:00, and there’s no need to book. Just turn up on the day. For more information see the Heritage Open Days directory.

Here are some of the BFI National Archive and Library team members you will meet on the day:

Mike digitises, preserves and remasters film soundtracks for cinema, BFI Player and BFI Blu-ray. He also leads a team which digitises video and audio recordings from the BFI National Archive to support access and public engagement. Mike also co-chairs the BFI’s Culture Champions network which supports the BFI’s innovative, diverse and inclusive culture.

He is driven by a love of music and fascination with recording technologies. He’s passionate about recorded sound and beguiled by its power to connect people and enable storytelling, with or without pictures.

Chantelle Lavel Boyea is the Assistant Curator of Television, responsible for selecting and acquiring programmes from streaming platforms including Netflix and Amazon. She joined the team in March 2023, having previously worked as Television Assistant in BFI Southbank’s programming team clearing television screening rights for regional venues and contributing to the year-round programming of television screenings at the BFI Southbank since 2019.

She has contributed to many projects at the BFI, including hosting, programming and delivering content for BFI Radio Times Television Festival, writing for the BFI website and was part of the core team working on the BFI’s 100 BBC Television Gamechangers list. Her areas of interest are contemporary television series, music documentary and children’s programmes. Her hobbies include creative writing, gardening and listening to music.

Karen came to her job through an unusual route, having worked as a technician in both NHS and Cancer Research labs. Following a career break, a course in computing and with an interest in non-fiction film (especially science and nature) she joined the BFI as a Film Technician at the Conservation Centre in 2002.

She loves the practical nature of her job, the film handling and working as part of a team. There is always something interesting and new to learn.

When not at work she enjoys long walks with her family and friends in the Chilterns. She volunteers as a family mentor for Home Start Herts, is a member of Berkhamsted Litter Pickers, and contributes to various environmental groups.

Lucy has worked for the BFI within the Data and Digital Preservation department for 10 years, previously working for the BBC Archives. She has worked on the BFI’s last two large scale digitisation, preservation and access projects – Unlocking Film Heritage and the Heritage 2022 programme. She manages a team of digital media, data and digital preservation infrastructure specialists. They ensure that digital media is safely preserved and accessible, practicing and sharing good digital preservation principles and processes.

Nina is a Library Assistant at the BFI Reuben Library and started her career in libraries at the Public Health Laboratory in Colindale before moving in 2000 to the BFI, in the role of Library Secretary, becoming a member of the Reader Services team as a Library Assistant in 2011.

She enjoys helping library patrons with research enquiries and using the microfilm/fiche equipment. Behind the scenes, she is a member of the team dealing with our busy advance request service as well as usual library duties relating to stock management, processing new journals, adding skeleton book records, and requesting festival catalogues from all over the world.

She loves watching films, concerts, theatre, a good drama, world cinema, animation, musical or comedy. Jazz and dance too, so a broad spectrum. Anything but horror, experimental and heavy rock music – not her style, darlings!

Tony’s background is in photography, dark room and printing. He achieved a three-year City & Guilds qualification which led to a career at the BFI. He loves cinema, and seeing a film on the big screen still excites him, especially cult, sci-fi, horror and rare films. He is a total geek, with a love of music, books, comics and graphic novels. He has been adopted by a wonderful tuxedo cat called Whiskers who takes up most of his time.

Jo joined the BFI in 2019 having previously worked for Northants Police in their Digital Intelligence Unit. Her role involves supporting the Head of Collections Management and Head of Conservation as well as other teams within the Conservation Centre. She also organises the Heritage Open Day event each year.

She is a keen cineaste with a love of Iranian cinema, 1970s Hollywood, British folk horror, film noir and Nicolas Cage. Her other interests include taking long walks, reading and writing a film blog that she will one day pluck up the courage to publish.

Holly joined the BFI Archive Sales team earlier this year, providing our broadcast and cultural production clients with archive footage access, research and licensing. Her first job was in a video rental shop in Shepherd’s Bush, London, where she gained an unofficial foundation course in film prior to her film degree, during which she worked at the Renoir Cinema (now the Curzon Bloomsbury). Holly went on to manage the historical footage archive at Bridgeman Images, where she handled collection acquisitions, curation, cataloguing and research. She then spent a wild and fast four years being creative researcher at ad agency McCann, developing her knowledge of the commercial photography and illustration world. Having survived that, Holly returned to the world of archive footage in the best place possible, where getting to know, and work with, the unimaginably vast contents of the BFI National Archive has been a privilege and a dream.

Saul has been professionally involved in the world of film, television and broadcast for over 15 years, which has included stints as a sound recordist/boom operator, dialogue editor (mostly for computer games) and a period as a technical operator at the BBC Archives in Perivale.

He loves working as a Video Conservation Specialist at the BFI National Archive for the sheer variety and quality of content it contains, as well as the friendly and knowledgeable colleagues he gets to work alongside. He is proud to have played a crucial part in the preservation of some of his favourite TV programmes and films from the BFI National Archive’s collection. Mainly occupied with 1” C-format Ampex VTRs, he can also be found digitising magnetic and optical audio formats. In his spare time, he likes pretending he can play guitar like Sonny Sharrock, Frank Zappa or ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke.

Becky works within the BFI National Archive’s Collections Development team. The BFI Filmmaking Fund financially supports new film titles every year and one of her responsibilities is to take in copies of these contemporary works, plus other BFI-funded projects, and coordinate their long-term preservation. The Curatorial team actively approach individuals and organisations for moving image, broadcast, streaming examples and Special Collections to add to the existing collection. They also review materials offered by the public and other institutions.

A part of the role she particularly enjoys is arranging a monthly meeting which discusses the resourcing of these offers, loan outs of material to other institutions and potential disposals of material held in the current collection. She is looking forward to meeting and chatting with you on the day.

Louise joined the BFI in 2005 as a Film Technician, after spending five years working as a full-time projectionist at her local cinema. As a part of the Image Quality Specialist team, she works on digital and photochemical restoration and remastering projects. She also writes occasional pieces for the BFI website.

Outside of the BFI, Louise is a keen gardener and enjoys working on her allotment as well as collecting film and TV soundtracks on vinyl.

Nicky Williams is Delivery Manager at BFI National Archive, managing the £17 million National Lottery-funded programme to deliver the new UK-wide archive streaming platform BFI Replay exclusively for UK libraries; one of the UK’s largest mass videotape digitisation programmes (100,000!); and 100 new 35mm film prints (showcased in the inaugural Film on Film Festival in June 2023).

Previous to her successful career delivering multi-stranded and complex million-pound programmes, Nicky had an extensive career in the creative industries as a practitioner, educator and fundraiser. She ran a creative community arts practice, was an award-winning freelance director and camera/lighting operator in the film and TV industry for over 20 years, including working with directors Alan Parker and Mike Figgis and producer Parminder Vir.

Alys has been working in the BFI National Archive Television Operations team since 2015 and is involved in preserving the BFI’s huge television collection for future generations.

She has always been a television addict (her favourite being Doctor Who in all its iterations) so found her way into working first at the BBC, then in the commercial television post-production industry for several decades. Coming to the BFI seemed a natural choice, especially as she now digitises archive videotapes that Alys and her many previous colleagues created. Full circle, you might say.

With over a decade’s experience in photofinishing at one of the world’s largest photographic laboratories, Martin joined the BFI in 1988 as part of Project 2000 at the then newly built Conservation Centre. He now takes care of all formats of projection, from traditional 35mm film to digital, including nitrate film.

Martin assesses the quality of prints for projection in retrospectives at BFI Southbank, for festivals, international screenings and research bookings. This comprises around 400 features a year, including newsreels and shorts, from 1895 to the current day.

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Originally published: 29 August 2023