Our Screen Heritage highlights the southeast’s LGBTQIA+ film heritage

University of Brighton’s Screen Archive South East has been awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to highlight the region’s LGBTIQA+ film heritage in partnership with Marlborough Productions’ Queer Heritage South initiative. 

The project, Our Screen Heritage will see us collaborate with Folkestone Pride and Margate Pride to discover, preserve and share LGBTQIA+ films made in Kent and southeast England.

LGBTQIA+ screen heritage has not been collected systematically by public institutions because of a long history of repression. Our Screen Heritage will address this lack in cultural visual history through a public call for films that capture different aspects of LGBTQIA+ life in the region – from everyday scenes to special events such as Pride festivals or LGBTQIA+ weddings.

The project runs throughout 2022, with volunteers at the heart of its work as Community Curators. They will learn about heritage issues and practices, and the nature of LGBTQIA+ heritage, as well as helping with the curation of films for preservation and exhibition.

As well as seeking out previously unseen films, Our Screen Heritage will produce innovative ‘heritage film’ programmes to be shared in a set of free public events in Folkestone and Margate in autumn 2022, including the Folkestone and Margate Pride festivals. Screen Archive South East will also take on the responsibility for the preservation of new films, and making them available for free community use.

Dr Frank Gray, Director of Screen Archive South East, said:

“Preservation is at the heart of all archives. This is particularly important for screen archives as an essential aspect of cultural history. So much of our screen heritage is at risk of being lost forever for a host of reasons, from the disappearance of film and videotape as media to the way people sometimes wipe digital files. Our Screen Heritage provides a wonderful opportunity to uncover, safeguard and share an overlooked history of film-making in the region.”

David Sheppeard, Queer Heritage South’s Project Director and Marlborough Productions’ Executive Director, said: 

“Our work in LGBTQIA+ heritage through our Queer in Brighton/Queer Heritage South projects are some of the most joyful and rewarding things we do. The chance to collaborate with our friends at Screen Archive South East to support communities in Margate and Folkestone to discover and take ownership of their own queer heritage is a thrill! We are grateful for the continued support of National Lottery Heritage Fund to continue this work.”

To find out more, visit ourscreenheritage.net

If you’d like to become a project volunteer, contact [email protected]

Image: Folkestone, Spacious and Gracious, Peter Whale, 1969 – an archive colour photograph of a busy outdoor swimming pool with a slide and diving boards; overlaid is the Our Screen Heritage logo.