British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Latest on the BUFVC Moving Image Gateway

The BUFVC Moving Image Gateway includes over 1,350 websites relating to video, multimedia and sound materials. These have been subdivided into over 40 subject areas. To suggest new entries or amendments, please contact us by email or telephone or visit the Gateway at http://bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/

Chronicle
This selection of documentaries from the long-running BBC archaeology series features a representative choice of programmes, from Roman Goose March in 1966, to the 1989 programme about Sutton Hoo. The series consisted of a mixture of filmed documentaries and live broadcasts. In the latter category, a notable example is Silbury Dig – The Heart of the Mound, in which Magnus Magnusson meets the archaeologists who have uncovered a tunnel leading to the heart of the neolithic earthwork.

Doha Film Institute
The Doha Film Institute is an independent cultural organisation, founded in 2010 to support Qatar’s film initiatives and promote filmmaking in the Arab world. The video section of the site contains interviews with actors and directors, items from the Doha Film Festival and films giving advice to would-be filmmakers. In keeping with the institute’s educational remit, there are also a number of videos on the history of Arab film and short documentaries exploring current trends and culturally significant movements, such as this look at Arab women in films.

Filmarkivet
This site is the result of a joint project by the Swedish Film Institute and the Swedish National Library. The selection of digitised (in high quality MPEG2 files) non-fiction films includes amateur films, commercials, public information films, political broadcasts, travelogues and newsreels. The aim is to preserve and make freely available a curated selection of films, reflecting a century of changes in Swedish society. The site was launched in 2011 with 300 films and currently there are 800 viewable items. Each film comes with a short synopsis and production credits and, in many cases, longer contextual essays. Apart from an overview of the project in English, the entire site is in Swedish and none of the films has subtitles. Nonetheless, this resource is highly recommended for film and newsreel historians and anyone interested in the recent history of Sweden.

My Favourite Scientist
Series of short films by video journalist Brady Haran, who interviews scientists and researchers from Nottingham Trent University, about the men and women who have inspired them. The answers range from familiar names, such as Alan Turing and Charles Darwin, to less well-known figures and even – in the form of Star Trek’s Mister Spock – fictional inspirations.

Re: Joyce
Irish writer Frank Delaney presents this series which aims to take the listener line-by-line through James Joyce’s Ulysses. Each podcast is between five and fifteen minutes long and features Delaney reading and analysing a passage from the novel. Delaney is in no hurry: at his current rate it will take over twenty years to get to the final lines of the soliloquy by Molly Bloom which ends the book. However, Delaney’s leisurely yet ambitious approach has much to recommend it. He is a genial guide, offering lucid and insightful views into Joyce’s notoriously allusive and experimental novel and his expressive and frequent quotation from the text emphasises the fact that the novel needs to be heard as well as read.

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