Wednesday 24th November 2010
Archivists in video footage appeal
University of Glasgow
A hunt is underway for amateur video footage showing childhood in Scotland in the 1980s and '90s.
Researchers at Glasgow University are collecting video footage of children - at school, at play, in hospital or at public events - to help record the period for future generations.
Dr Karen Lury, principal investigator for the project said:
"Remember the Buggles song, Video killed the Radio Star’? Well, ironically it is now the video generation of non-commercial film-makers and their work that are in danger of extinction."
"The Scottish Screen Archive is bursting with films of children: from films showing clinics for children with rickets in the 1930s to moody teenagers in the 1970s. But once we reach the age of video it stops. Where were Thatcher’s children? Did the relative cheapness of video mean that they were allowed to film themselves? How did they see the world and each other?"
"Our project is determined to find these movie-makers working in video to understand how this soon to be forgotten media defined a generation living and growing up in Scotland over a period of huge social and political change - from the poll tax riots to the era of 'Glasgow's Smiles Better' and beyond."
The team are collecting donations of videos made between 1980 and 2000.
The project has been launched in conjunction with the Scottish Screen Archive and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).